The Fifth Dimension
by bittersweet bliss
Summary: Sakura is thrown into the past when a mission goes awry. As she struggles to find her way out of Konoha in a time before Kyuubi's attack, she comes to know Kakashi on a more than two-dimensional level.
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1- Sakura, 17; Kakashi, 31_

Under any other situation, the rain pelting her forehead would have been a welcomed blessing. Konohagakure, though beautiful and lush and perfect, was notorious for its humid and scalding weather that rivaled Suna's own dry heat. To say Konoha was "hot" at this time of the year was a grave understatement.

So, yes, under any other situation, the rain pelting Sakura's (large) forehead would have been a welcomed blessing. Unfortunately, she had been waiting in the rain for almost an hour and thirty minutes, waiting for her stupid team leader and former-sensei to show up.

Really, what had she been expecting?

_Damn that man_, Sakura hissed in her mind, swiping at a lock of hair that persistently glued itself to her cheek because of the precipitation. _Five more minutes and I'm going back home! _

To her side, Naruto was trying his best to stay dry by dashing from one place to another. Due to his vast amount of energy and his large chakra reserves, he _could _do this, while Sakura was left to moodily imitate a half-drowned cat. Sasuke, on the other hand, sat cross-legged on the bridge stoically as if there was no rain at all. _Bastard_, Sakura groused inwardly. To soothe her temper, she imagined smashing the poor jounin's face upon his arrival. Her blood only stirred at the images of violence.

All heads whipped towards the _crack_ that generally followed Kakashi's appearance or disappearance. "Yo!" He greeted raising two fingers together as a salutation, alongside an innocent eye-crease.

"_I'LL SHOW YOU 'YO'!_" Sakura screeched, stomping towards her teammate, ready to give him a new face.

"Sakura-chan, your packs completely soaked through! Isn't that a violation of rule number 13 of the ninja code? How can a shinobi prepare before it is too late if all their possessions are wet? You know a wet exploding tag only does half the damage it's meant to do." He chided jovially as he stepped away from her chakra-laden fists. Sakura saw red and shrieked; flocks of birds lifted from the forest canopy surrounding the land, squawking and flying off in surprise. "I apologize for being a little late! I saw a poor little kitten struggling in the river-" he paused, seeming to meditate on his next claim, "it looked a bit like you do right now, Sakura-" she lunged for his throat. "So I just had to help it out. I'm sure you would have done the same."

At this point, Sakura was seething, smoke seeming to come out of her ears. Her face was a complimenting shade of red that suited her pink (slightly red in the rain) hair. "Shut up, old man, and _go_," she spat, rushing ahead of him and out of the gates. As soon as they got to the nearest inn, she was throwing her clothes into a container and demanding that Naruto blow them clean with whatever wind jutsu he had.

* * *

Night had slowly settled on them as they had trekked through the trees, and the heavy rain had settled in favor of a light mist that left them cool. Unfortunately, the humidity was beginning to settle in.

Naruto began to whine, much to the chagrin of his teammates, particularly Sakura, who was still grumbling about their wet start. "Aaah, Kakashi-sensei, it's so _hot!_ I can't breathe! Can't we stop now and just get outta here? Find an inn or somethin'? We've been walking since 2!" His voice took on his usual note of irritation as he started ranting, more to himself than any of the group. "What was that obaa-chan thinkin', anyways, sendin' us out at the hottest time of the year?"

He raved on and on until Sasuke grabbed his uniform. "Do you have a death wish, dobe?" He deadpanned, glaring straight into his eyes. Naruto glared back.

"Shut up, teme!" But his retort fell flat. Sasuke shook his head before dropping the kyuubi container.

"Naruto, just be glad it's a B-rank mission," Sakura said in a huff. "You might be able to get a decent meal out of the pay, and I _know _you've almost been evicted," she shot him a scathing look, making the blond squirm.

"Saaakura-chaaaan, you're being meeeeeeeeaan," his continuously whiny tone had Sakura looking up to the heavens, praying she wouldn't knock him unconscious.

She knew, though, that they were all relieved to be on this mission. Team 7 could only handle being cooped up in the village for so long before all hell broke loose. Tsunade had gathered them at just the right time when they were beginning to get antsy and announced that she was sending them on "a shit-stomping mission."

Sounded promising to the pinkette.

The Sannin had tossed a jutsu-sealed scroll to Kakashi who'd caught it deftly and then shoved it into a pocket of his vest. "That needs to be sent to Ame," her eyes flashed, "but don't be surprised if you're intercepted multiple times." Her statement was laced with insinuation, and all members understood the importance of the document. "Now get out!"

Before she knew it, they had arrived in front of a dingy looking motel. "We'll stop here for the night," Kakashi commanded. Everybody breathed a sigh of relief at the thought of showering and resting.

Sakura promptly demanded Naruto to dry her things ("_No peeking!_" She'd hissed at his mischievous glance at her belongings, before dumping her pack into a wicker basket in the room), and soon after, they'd all fallen onto their respective beds and blacked out.

* * *

The trip to Ame had been easy- a little too easy, leaving each person edgy and paranoid. The battles had been few and far between, and even Kakashi was looking increasingly concerned. Perhaps the last straw was when the leader of Ame invited them to stay a few more days to rest up.

"Of course," their leader had agreed with his signature eye-crease. When they were shown their rooms, his facade dropped and he warned quietly for everybody to sleep with one eye open.

"Easy for you," Sakura grumbled. "You always seem to have only one eye open." As if to prove her wrong, Kakashi smiled, both of his eyes closing. Sakura rolled her own jade eyes. "Really, Kakashi-sensei, you're so two-dimensional!" Although her comment was sharp, it was nothing out of the norm, and she was smiling lopsidedly at him.

"Two-dimensional?" Kakashi quipped. "If you're the standard, Sakura-chan, everybody is two-dimensional." His voice was pleasant, and Sakura laughed brightly at his pseudo-compliment.

"Really, you flatter me."

"But Kakashi-sensei is right, Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, sitting up straight quickly at the air of humor in the air. "You're like a firecracker! Nobody can compare! One minute you're just there and the next thing you know CRACK! Nobody can run, nobody can hide! You'll find 'em and you'll kill 'em!" He enthused. Sakura's eye-twitch was increasing at an alarming rate before she finally smacked the boy on the back of his head. "Ow! What was that for?"

"You idiot."

"What!" Naruto yipped, thoroughly confused. "It was a compliment!"

"Just be quiet, dobe, before you make it worse," Sasuke drawled as her continued staring up at the ceiling from the bed, hands behind his head.

"Maah, you guys always team up against me," Naruto griped, pulling his jacket over his head. There was a comfortable silence as everybody prepared to settle in for the night. The lights went out before Naruto chirped again, followed by a collective sigh of exasperation from his teammates. "But really, Kakashi, you actually are pretty two-dimensional."

"Oh yes?" The man in question humored the boy. "Pray enlighten me."

Sakura could almost hear the whiskered blond perk up. She had to admit though, she was interested herself in the direction this exchange seemed to be taking. Even Sasuke had woken up from his cat-nap to listen in- she'd heard him turning to face the company, and his sharingan spun lazily in the dark from his momentary lapse into unconscious. Soon, his eyes darkened again. _How eerie_, Sakura shuddered a little.

"Well, to start," she heard the boy raise a finger in the dark. "We know all your habits, but we dunno where you got them. Second-"

"You can put your fingers down, dobe. Nobody can see them anyways."

"Shut up, teme!" Naruto whined, but his hand did drop back down. Sakura stifled a little giggle at the two boys' antics. "Second, we know everything that _happened _to you, but we dunno how you got to where you are now! I mean, how does somebody like _Sasuke_ turn into somebody like _you_?" Although the question was innocent, his tone seemed to imply that he found Kakashi's current personality a vast improvement from the brooding Uchiha's. Sasuke seemed to pick up on the implication, too.

"Dobe..." Sasuke growled. The medic-nin thought she could hear the swoosh of the daggers from his eyes fly into Naruto's back and again smothered her laughter. As much as their personalities clashed, she really loved her team. Her boys. A soft smile graced her features in the dark.

"So, Kakashi-sensei? Whaddya have to say for yourself?"

"Isn't that the question to answer all questions?" Kakashi replied rhetorically, the smile evident in his tone.

"Aaaaw, no, c'mon! That's not a real answer!" He thrashed around under his covers, but nobody said anything. "Alright, fine, be that way. I'm gonna sleep now! G'night all of you." He'd taken on the persona of a child denied his favorite toy.

Sakura glanced at Kakashi, and her heart stopped. He was smiling at her as if he knew something she didn't, and it unnerved her. "Good night," she said quietly, turning so her back faced the copy nin. Her heart was racing slightly at the foreign expression her familiar had been carrying, but she easily fell into a comfortable and deep sleep.

But despite the soft, plush mattresses and the cool, down comforters, Team 7 was jolted to their feet at 3 in the morning when they heard a crash from below them. Muffled swearing rose up from beneath their feet. "We're a room below them," a deep, raspy voice spat, "which of you idiots miscalculated?" A large collection of grumbles and groans passed through the group, each of them denying having made the error.

"Large group," Sakura murmured, and her teammates nodded, each slipping into their gear as quietly as possible and pulling out their weapons.

Sasuke activated his Sharingan, gazing at what would appear to be the carpet to any uninformed passerby. He looked back up, his eye spinning to fast it left a clear black ring around his pupil. "We're outnumbered by at least 20. Underneath us is the dining hall."

Kakashi exhaled dourly just as Naruto began to grin in his mad-scientist way that only he could pull off. "Alright, here's the shit-stompin' baa-chan was harpin' about!" He cried excitedly.

"Naruto!" Sakura hissed, clamping a hand over the orange-ninja's mouth. But the damage had been done; the room underneath them became deadly quiet. "Shi-"

As if on cue, the floor fell out from beneath them, landing them into the very company of the conniving nin.

"WHICH ONE OF YOU SUCKERS WANTS TO DIE FIRST?" The rest of Team 7 groaned and slapped hands to their foreheads- the blonde was definitely living up to his "number one-unpredictable-noisy-show off" moniker.

"We volunteer-" one man, the man who held the deep, dry voice and who seemed to be in charge, raised a hand. "You." His hand folded, pointing directly at the kyuubi container. Without a seconds hesitation, he rushed towards his target. Sakura was taken aback by his speed, which seemed unfitting for somebody so large and bulky, but her surprise was cut short when the man immediately commanded his fleet of hulking loons to make meat out of the others. "But keep the ones with Sharingan alive. We want them."

Sakura flared furiously at this. _Oh, so you think I'm useless? _

"You'll regret saying that," Kakashi called back flatly, as if reading the medic's mind. He was already gathering chakra into his open palm, the chirping of his Chidori becoming increasingly louder. She shot him an appreciative and semi-shocked glance (that he returned pleasantly) before diving into the fray.

Perhaps she had underestimated the men. She had put them down as the brawns-over-brains type, but 30 minutes into the battle and 3 men later (leaving 18 more), she found herself breathing heavily as she skid to a stop, nursing a nasty cut on her side. Each of them had obviously been trained in strategizing. Even if she were to combine her brainpower with Sasuke and Kakashi, they were still clearly outnumbered. She calculated the cost of this battle as she poured chakra from her hand into her wound.

"Ooh, we have ourselves a little medic here?" A slightly leaner man said from behind her. Sakura jumped, momentarily pausing in her ministration to return to a defensive stance as she glared at him. "You're definitely going to have to die first."

"Not if I can help it," she spat back, jumping high and sending her leg down in the hopes of cracking his head open.

"Ah, feisty, just the way I like my women," he quipped. Sakura fumed, her resolve to kill strengthening, only to gasp when he caught her ankle and slammed her to the ground. In a flash, she swept a leg out under him, knocking him to the floor. He landed neatly on his hands before flipping back straight up, and she cursed.

"Who _are _you?" She picked herself up less than gracefully, internally counting the fractures she could feel with her heightened sensitivity.

Something glinted in his eyes, something that frightened Sakura. The flower of chakra to her hand faltered for a moment. He shot her a toothy grin. "Oh, you'll find out soon enough."

She clenched her jaw, then jumped into the air, prepared to hit him. He easily rolled out of the way. "Missed!"

But his smirk slid off as Sakura returned the haughty smile, slamming her fist into the ground. Immediately, the terrain cracked underneath her punch. The man swore, fumbling for purchase, only to slip further into the cracks. He finally managed to leap out, only to be met with an angry medic with chakra scalpels in her hands flying at him.

His head dropped immediately, and Sakura scoffed. _What idiot looks down when he's going to get torn to pieces? _Without further thought, she shoved the blades into his shoulders, tearing down, down down-

just as his head snapped up and his fingers finished the combination he had been focusing on. Sakura froze upon meeting his gaze, caught off guard by the familiar red and black pattern.

_Sharingan?_

Quickly, she cut through his heart, stumbling back uncertainly. What had he done to her? She patted herself down briskly as the man sputtered up blood. Though she was visibly shaken, there were no direct injuries.

Direct being the keyword.

As discretely as she could, she gandered a look at the others. Nothing out of the ordinary. Kakashi, though, had just finished up an opponent and looked up at her furtively. Their eyes met, and Sakura was again caught off guard by the intense look in his eyes, stepping back again. Her back bumped into something fleshy but large, which immediately grabbed her by the neck and pulled her off the ground. The pinkette gasped, grabbing at the grubby fingers that were choking her. She flailed, kicking the giant in the stomach, only to have her foot bounce back.

A minute later, just as her vision was beginning to vignette like a photograph and bright white dots were popping up amidst the scenery, she heard a loud, "SAKURA-CHAN!" She was dropped without warning, landing on her knees and hands, gasping like a fish out of water.

"You good?" Sasuke asked in a rare display of concern. He was wielding a fuma shuriken, steadily watching the large man who was stumbling around as Naruto's shadow clones kicked him around. Sakura nodded fervently, only to stop when her world spun at the rapid motion.

With one large sweep of his hand, the giant eliminated all of the clones. Sasuke bounded forward just as the enemy went in for another hit aimed at the blond. Sakura swayed as she straightened, breathing deeply to steady herself. She knew where the boys were- now where was Kakashi?

As she took stock of the room, she was relieved to know that the large group had dwindled significantly. She finally spotted the silver-haired jounin who was scaling the columns of the hall, avoiding the berserk movements of the beast before him. Rubble and dust followed each large swing of the colossal form's arms.

Two men were left as each male on Team 7 dueled mercilessly against their own target. They zoned in on her, and just like that, vanished.

Sakura turned in time to see them hurtling at her. Her immediate response was to leap towards the nearest pillar and hit it with her monstrous strength. It cracked in two, groaning as it fell, catching one of the men. He was momentarily winded, and his arm was obviously broken. Sakura wiped the blood that had been oozing from a cut above her eyebrow.

The last 30 minutes of the battle consisted in various choruses of screams, shrieks, and grunts from each ninja. Finally, the last man, Kakashi's mark (which they had all ganged up on at the very end), fell. He seemed to move in slow motion, every frame of his descent played before Sakura's eyes. Just as his back hit the ground, his arm caught the nape of Sakura's collar, pulling her down with him. Her head hit the floor with a crack, bouncing painfully against the tile.

"_Shit_-" the kyuubi's voice echoed through her head. "We need to get her back to a hospital _now_."

* * *

"Just a little longer," a familiar sing-song voice crooned. Her heart raced at the low, male pitch as she tried to grasp the fragment of her memory that seemed to recognize him.

But when she finally managed to pull her eyelids apart, there was nobody in the room. A flicker of panic raced through her body. Where was she? What had she been doing? She swallowed, appalled at the heavy taste of iron in her mouth. She shouldn't have been surprised- she had suspected internal bleeding. Trust her body to try to eject it through her digestive tract.

The door clicked open. "Sakura-chan?"

"Kakashi?"

"How are you feeling?"

"I- I think I'm fine," she gave a weak laugh. "Of course _I'd _be the one taking the brunt end of the damage." Her tongue was thick in her mouth, making speech as difficult as trying to shove a beach ball underneath the ocean waves. When she looked at him, he was peering at her with a look of pity. "What are you looking at? I'm not dying," again, she attempted a laugh. Something she couldn't quite name flitted across his face momentarily.

"Just- whatever you do, don't fall asleep," Kakashi said faintly. Sakura furrowed her eyebrows. There seemed to be a note of pleading in his voice. "We have another day of travel before we'll be back in Konoha. I know it's difficult, especially in your state, but you can't fall asleep. You _can't_." He seemed to recognize the desperation in his own voice, furrowed his own brow, and left the room without another word.

True to his word, the team arrived back in one day, the boys alternating turns at carrying the medic-nin ("There's just something really messed up about having to carry the _medic-nin_, ya know what I mean?" Naruto had mused). She was near delirious at the pain, heat, and lack of sleep. Kakashi had kindly stayed awake with her, although he was so quiet it really made no difference. At first he'd tried reading _Icha, Icha Paradise _to his former student, but she had protested as loudly as she could (which was not loud at all), feeling the heat climbing up to her ears. In the moments where she struggled to keep her eyes open, she'd felt her hand in his. He would squeeze her hand and call out her name, occasionally brushing his thumb over her knuckles.

"Get her to the hospital," Kakashi took control of the situation, speaking in short imperatives. "Meet me in Tsunade-sama's office."

Despite having been on many missions, Sakura had never been on the receiving end of hospital treatment. Frankly, she was certain the food wasn't as bad as everybody claimed, and really, the worst thing about being in the hospital was really just being confined to a single cot.

That night, she was alone. No Kakashi to keep her company, not even a TV screen. _I'm definitely telling shishou to set aside funds for that_, she grouched in her boredom.

"Having fun?"

Her heart skipped a beat. "Hello?"

"Right here, sweetheart."

She pulled her torso up slowly, wheezing as her freshly fixed and aching ribs stubbornly refused to comply with the movement. What she saw when she turned her head had her eyes widening.

The man she had killed was crouching at her window, smiling. Her heart began to pump furiously, and she became heady with terror. "H- how are you here? How are you still alive?" Her voice rose in pitch. "I- I sliced straight through your heart."

"Oh, some people transcend all time," he breathed, still grinning. "See you later."

"No- no, please, come back," despite her fear, she needed answers. Now. "What's going on?"

He was gone long before Sakura had begged, yet his voice carried on the wind, "you'll see. Just sleep for now."

Forgetting Kakashi's plea, she did what was so natural to any human being- fell into a deep slumber.

* * *

The voices were faint, weaving in and out and muffled as if passing through a filter.

"Where is she? _WHERE IS SHE_?" A loud, female voice.

"I- I don't know, Tsunade-sama! W-we j-just- we checked her room in the morning and she was g-gone! H-her covers weren't even wrinkled, but th-there just... there just wasn't anything! She was just gone!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN "_GONE_"_?!_ PEOPLE DON'T JUST _DISAPPEAR, CHIYOKO!"_

"_SAKURA-CHAN IS GONE?" _Oh. That was Naruto.

"_EVERYBODY OUT! NOW!"_

"Tsunade-sama," Kakashi, was it? He sounded sad. "Let me explain."

"..."

"Please."

"In my office. _Now_."

* * *

a/n: This was actually an idea I had years and years and years ago (when I started the original KakaSaku fic on this account. Which I'll update... eventually. LOL). I hate to start a fic when I haven't even finished the other (despite being NOTORIOUS for that!)... but I had a sudden idea, and I couldn't bear to just drop it. Hopefully, then, I can keep this short. I don't want to go over 4 chapters... 10 if I REALLY have to. Which proves difficult, as my plan is to have Sakura stuck in the past... for a WHILE (I'm talkin' years here, eep! I know!).

The original idea for this was completely different than what I have in mind now. I've kept a few aspects, but there is a huge difference, in that there is a "time leap," or whatever you want to call it. Because seriously. KakaSaku does not have _nearly_ enough time leap fics, when it seems like a given, HAHAHA. Then, there's the fact that I've read so few fics about Kakashi's own transformation from that stoic and pesky little party-pooper to his lax self now. And I figured- "there are so many dilemmas stemming from Kakashi's huge age gap from Sakura. What if you flip it around?"- and thus, this was born (granted, the age gap is a little different, but... bleh). So. This is just a baby of all the things I wish there were more fics of. HA.

Furthermore, I'm aware that my fic doesn't fit into the timeline of the current manga or anime. So I guess in a way, it's a little bit AU. I guess we'll all just have to deal with it, sorry! Hweehweehweehweehwee!

Lastly (finally, bahaha), I apologize for any errors. I started this at 11 and I finished at 3 in the morning (I was just slamming away on my keyboard for 5 hours straight LOL), and halfway through, I was like, "... I just want to sleep." So there may be spelling (I almost wrote "smelling" there. See? Losing my sanity HAHAHA) errors. I read back on each paragraph after typing them and scanned it completely at the end, but I haven't read it through.

Thanks for reading, reviews are appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2- Sakura, 17; Kakashi, 13_

"Damnit," a voice whined. "She's _heavy!"_

"Now, now, Obito-san. It isn't polite to call a girl heavy," a soothing voice chided. She experienced a lifting sensation. "Here, I'll take her now. It's only 30 minutes until we get back to the village."

Her eyes fluttered opened, and it took her a moment to realize she was staring up at the forest canopy. It took her another moment for her to realize she was in somebody's arms. Immediately, she flailed.

"Oh! She seems to have woken up," the soothing voice stated. Sakura began to thrash about, wondering who had taken her out of the hospital. "Calm down, you'll hurt yourself. You're already in pretty bad damage. We're taking you to the hospital right now."

"What are you talking about?" She finally cried out. "I was just _in _the hospital!" At least it was no longer hard to speak. She rolled her tongue around in her mouth, testing it out. Back to normal, it seemed.

A pair of recognizable, deep, blue eyes looked down at her in concern. "We found you on the forest floor a days trip away from Ame and Konoha. You were bleeding, and your head is just starting to dry up. It's normal if you're rather disoriented."

"I'm a medic, I know what's going on with my body!" Sakura bit back, writhing again in the man's strong grasp.

"A medic, really? I noticed your hitae-ate, but I've never seen you before." He grunted at a well-placed kick to his sternum. "You seem significantly better. I'm going to let you down now."

Crying victoriously inside, Sakura almost flew out of his arms and onto the ground. _Bad move_, she thought as she tripped over her own feet. _Definitely still a little disoriented_. "Wha-whaddya want from me? Who are you?"

Her eyes swept over the group. The black-haired boy had his head cocked to the right, head craned towards her as if he was trying to peer at an interesting animal through the bars of its cage. The rather pretty girl to his side had her hands folded in front of her chest. Sakura took note of her purple markings, making sure to ask about them later. "I'm a medic, too," the girl said gently, shooting her a shy, sweet smile. "My name's Rin." _She's a heartbreaker! _Sakura accused. _I can tell!_ And sure enough, the boy with the goggles was ogling the girl in a rather pathetic and lovesick manner.

The man that seemed to be leading the group reminded Sakura remarkably of Naruto, although definitely more tranquil. _Wait... this is... this is Minato-san. This is the fourth hokage_. However, his outfit clearly suggested he was only a jounin. _What's going on?_

"You okay, uh, lady-san?" The boy, whom she deemed to be Obito by the sound of his voice, ventured tentatively.

"Sakura," _What am I doing? I don't even know if it's safe to give them my name! _"You can just call me Sakura."

"That's a pretty name," Rin's smile grew. "What were you doing all the way in Ame?"

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "Why are you asking?" She was still walking backwards, a rather dangerous position to be in. But she assumed she would be safe. She knew they were wearing hitae-ate's with the leaf sigma, but she couldn't shake off the feeling of unease. "Why am I even talking to you? Honestly, I should run. How do I even know I can trust any of you?" She began to ramble, a bad habit she'd picked up in her years with Tsunade when she desperately tried to explain a compromising position she would often be found in.

In the middle of her run-on sentences and shrill voice, somebody spoke up from behind her:

"Chill out, lady."

Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin, shrieking. What she saw stopped her heart (this had been happening a lot recently, and it was really starting to worry her). A boy that looked remarkably like Kakashi was staring at her levelly, his voice cool and flippant and... high.

"Kakashi-"

_No._

_No way._

_No. Freaking. Way._

"That was rude," Rin finished for Minato, looking pointedly at the silver-haired boy. With a roll of his eyes, he turned to face the front again.

_I would recognize that mask anywhere_.

"You heard Rin-chan, Kaka-teme!" Obito snarled. "Apologize!"

"Shut up, dobe. Nobodys telling me to apologize, you're drawing your own conclusions now." His arms were crossed as he walked in front. Though his frame was small, he had a decidedly arrogant and indifferent air about him.

Sakura blinked at the disarmingly familiar exchange that had just happened. She couldn't help but stare, a reluctant smile gathering on the corners of her lips.

"Are you done staring, obaa-chan?" Kakashi deadpanned, shooting an acute look at her over his shoulder. Her smile dropped in the space of a millisecond, and her eye began to twitch. Irritation bubbled in the pit of her stomach.

_Still an ass, in a completely different way_.

"We're here. Take her to the hospital. We'll debrief outside the Hokage's office-" the small boy was cut short by Minato's hand, which ruffled his silver strands.

"Always trying to take charge. You're turn will come. As of now, I'm still the team leader, Kakashi-kun." Despite the reprimand, a gentle expression graced the blond's features.

"Right," he grumbled.

"Stupid," Obito muttered under his breath. Kakashi's eyes narrowed, but he ignored the gibe.

"Seeing as you're a medic, I'm sure you know where the hospital is, Sakura-san. If we're needed, you can find us at the tower."

As soon as they disappeared from her line of sight, Sakura surveyed her surroundings. There wasn't too big a difference. The streets appeared as crowded as ever, shops lining each side of the road and people interacting heatedly around the market. She inhaled deeply, preparing herself for the ultimate litmus test-

there were only three heads on the monument.

Somehow, she had traveled back in time. How? What had-

the man.

A fleeting image surfaced to mind, one of his leering smiles. She shuddered, tightening her grip on her arm. So this is what he had done. Fine, then, she would get out of it.

"Kai!" But as she peeled her fingers apart from the hand seal she had formed, nothing had changed. Then this was obviously a much deeper jutsu- maybe it wasn't even a genjutsu. Her blood ran cold at the thought.

_Just... just get to the hospital_.

* * *

"Holy crap, you're beat up," a nurse gasped, flying out of her seat, scattering papers all around her. "Shoot, I'll worry about those later. First room to the right, dear,"

_This is _my _room,_ Sakura mused. She pressed her hands against the cot, laughing dryly to herself at the vastamount of change- _not. _

"I'm actually a medic myself, so is it ok if I take care of this myself? It's always easier to heal yourself." The medic peered at her skeptically, but finally nodded after a minute of assessing her patient's condition. "I'll be back in 15 minutes, then."

As if on cue, a voice rung through the speakers, "Mizuki to room 307, Mizuki to room 307."

Sakura gathered chakra into her cuts, disappointed at how she could feel herself pulling chakra from her last reserves. As the wounds stitched back together, she passed her glowing hands over her ribs, pleased to find that they were healed, save for one crack. _I guess some things from my time passed over_. She paused. It felt strange to refer to "her"-time and "now"-time, and it was stranger, still, that she even had to _make _that distinction.

I feeling of melancholy settled over her as she mulled over her situation. She wondered what was going on in her Konoha, whether she had fallen into a coma or, worst case scenario, died. _If I died, can I get back? _The thought was worrisome, so she pushed it out of her mind.

Really though, it was a pity that something like this had happened just as the Team dynamics had been changing. Sasuke had been back for almost a year and off probation for a few months. After the all the fluster of activity to send Sasuke back to his original Team, Sakura had been to worn out to preen over him. With time, the broken strings in their relationships had healed: Sasuke and Naruto fell back into their caustic (but of course, caring) banter, and Sakura and Sasuke got along well. He acknowledged her vast improvement in skill, even mentioning once that he was glad she was no longer the clingy and needy girl from 5 years ago (to which she'd felt a vein throb in her forehead and smacked him. "Don't talk about that if you can help it, idiot."); yet, even with his kinder demeanor, Sakura had just... fallen out of love. A Naruto-esque friendship had developed in its stead, and she found that it wasn't something she was opposed to.

Ino, of course, freaked.

"_Whaddya mean you don't like him anymore?_" She'd screeched, slamming her hands against the counter of the flower shop, bringing her face inches away from the pinkette's. "How do you just _stop _liking someone?" This only seemed to bother her for a minute though, as she immediately asked, "so he's all mine now?"

Sakura looked at Ino scathingly and then shook her head. "I don't know what happened. It just did."

"You're absolutely nuts, Forehead. Sasuke is like, the biggest thing in town right now," she said this as if he was a fad that all girls were crazy to get their hands on. Of course, Sakura had never really been a normal girl- even at 12, her crazy fangirling was _too _crazy for a normal girl's.

"Do what you want, Pig."

What ensued when it got around that Sakura no longer cared for Sasuke that way was hilarious. Naruto's antics increased tenfold, as did Rock Lee's. She seemed to constantly be fighting off suitors, which was something she had never expected to do. It seemed that she was a lot more attractive than she gave herself credit for, but she didn't actually care for any of it. Good thing all she had to do was slam the nearest tree and send it crashing to scare off half of the males who had been pursuing her!

A sigh parted her lips. She already missed her Konoha. Just as she finished reminiscing, Mizuki reentered the room, her clipboard in hand. Her eyes widened. "You did a good job with yourself," her eyes narrowed. "I've never seen you around, but you have a lot of skill- fractures aren't easy to heal. I'm sure I would have seen you before. Who are you?"

_Quick, make something up_, Sakura fidgeted. _Now would be a good time for your rambling habit kick up! _"I'd been on a long-term mission since I was 12," she cringed inwardly, not sure how believable her excuse was. Hesitating, she added, "I was a special case. It wasn't supposed to be that long, just a trip to Wave," at least that wasn't a lie. "And I was trained there. My teammates were with me, but they died working for Wave."

There was a silence as the nurse scrutinized the pink-haired girl, who waited with bated breath. Teams ending up working in a country long-term was no surprise, and neither was the fact that teams often died working under those countries. Finally, the nurse shrugged, glancing down at her clipboard, "Well, Sakura-san, I'm surprised word of your skill didn't get around." After a little bit of fussing and checking into her eyes and ears, she leaned back. "You're completely fine right now."

"Ok. May I go?"

"Of course," Sakura skipped off the cot, straightening her clothes. "Sakura-san?"

"Yes?" She looked up, brushing her arms off.

"Have you ever worked in a hospital?"

"Yes."

"Would you be interested in a position here? We're short on staff, and I'm sure the Hokage wouldn't mind making an exception once I tell him about your skill."

"Oh, wow, Mizuki-san, that would be such a huge favor, I don't even know how I'd be able to repay you-"

"Just work hard," the aging nurse smiled. "You'd have to take a few tests to really pinpoint your skill, but before that, you'll be placed in the regular hospital. That's this floor. Just come tomorrow. morning at 8, and we'll get you started."

"Oh wow, thank you so much! But, uh, Mizuki-san-"

"Hm?"

"... where can I apply for housing?"

* * *

Thankfully, she was able to apply for a house in the Petal district, which was located conveniently within all the major market-streets. The man renting to her had been surprisingly easygoing, willing to make sacrifices due to the fact she was a ninja. "Don't worry about it, I'll give you a bit of a discount. It's the least I can do for you guys when you work so hard," he'd remarked humbly when Sakura began fretting about pay. Shortly after, the method of payment and all other details had been settled. For the night, though, she would be staying at Mizuki's.

People sure were a lot nicer in this time period than in hers, Sakura had mused.

The next morning, she'd suited up. Her uniform went past her knees, surprising the medic-nin, as the ones in her time stopped a distance _from _her knees. A vein throbbed in her forehead when she thought too hard about who it was that had changed the standard gear.

She'd been issued Room 304, and as soon as she arrived, Team Minato showed up, minus Obito, who showed up groaning and griping an hour later, out of breath ("I hate hospitals! Hate 'em!") as Rin tried to placate him. Minato was smiling cheerily, completely oblivious (or maybe just ignoring?) to Obito's cries. Kakashi, on the other hand, was sporting an incredibly frustrated expresion.

"Shut up, you idiot. You'll be out fast enough." Obito immediately shut up, glowering at his masked teammate.

"I'm gonna go first to get this over with!" The goggle-wearing boy shoved his way to the front of the line, and Kakashi massaged his temples, eyes closed in exasperation.

"Rin-chan should go first, she's a girl, Obito-dobe," Kakashi seethed, dragging the boy back by his collar. "Jeez, don't you know anything?"

Rin was considerably flushed at the boy's consideration, and Sakura had an inkling of suspicion that the girl may have had a crush on Kakashi. "Th-thanks, Kakashi-kun," he ignored her, though, stepping behind the line, a noticeable distance away from his team. _What a charmer_, Sakura thought sourly.

It was 10 by the time the line reached Kakashi, and she had just finished up a patient when he stepped to the front of the line, preparing to sit back into the waiting chair. Sakura watched as he seated himself, his legs not quiet reaching the floor, hanging and swining like a child's. A small grin crept up her face.

"Kakashi-kun? You can come into my room." His eyes widened.

"You're already working? You just got here yesterday- hey! You're completely healed," his eyebrows creased.

"Don't worry about it," she laughed at his scrutinizing, ruffling the boy's hair. It felt so good to be older than Kakashi and belittling him after all those years she had suffered through Kakashi's patronizing antics. _I could get use to this!_

She followed standard procedures, asking him to breathe deeply and cough as she pressed a cold stethoscope against his back. She healed any cuts and bruises, and then checked his eyes. Sharingan-check ups generally had different procedures, and it was a rather alien experience seeing Kakashi without the faded pink scar that ran over his transmuted eye. Actually, just being around this Kakashi was a very alien experience. He didn't have any books on him (to Sakura's relief. She wasn't sure how she'd take a 13-year-old Kakashi carrying around porn) and he was frigid and disinterested. Plus, he had been on time... and he hadn't avoided the hospital.

_This is such an interesting turn of events_, Sakura mused. In fact, her current patient was showing absolutely no aversion to being inspected. "Alright, you're good, Kakashi-kun, you can go ahead-"

"What, no oral checkup?" He looked at her skeptically, as if doubting her medical knowledge.

Sakura stuttered to a stop as she was scribbling on her clipboard. No, she hadn't _forgotten_... she was just use to avoiding the oral aspect on the rare occasion Kakashi _did _stop by the hospital. Hesitating, she asked experimentally, "could you take off your mask, then?"

Without delay, the 13-year-old pulled the mask down. Sakura swallowed, wading in foreign waters. Pulling a tongue depressor out of the pocket of her uniform, she asked him to open his mouth and say "ah."

"You're fine," She pulled out the tongue depressor and tossed it into the nearest trash can.

"I'll be leaving now, then. Thank you." As he hopped off the patient's bed, his hair sprung around in a lively manner. He adjusted the tuft that fell between his eyes, arranging the strands so they didn't obstruct his vision.

"No problem," she didn't watch him leave, choosing rather to sit on her stool and relive the moment. He was only 13, so of course his features were still immature and boyish, but she could see the inklings of charm already forming. She couldn't help the grin that tugged at her mouth.

_Yeah, I could get use to this_.

* * *

The year passed idly. Sakura tried to find time to research her situation, but the influx of nin was much more than she had anticipated. What with her recent promotion, she didn't have time to hit the books. She was working situation-dependent shifts at both the normal hospital _and _the ER, leaving her timetable completely unpredictable.

Team Minato stopped by every month, and she had examined each member at least once. The checkups were often short and lacking in substantial conversation, but Kakashi always seemed to make it a point to subtly slide in an insult, much to her ire (he was calling her 'obaa-chan' for Hokage's sake!). Around the fifth month, she was prepared to whack him dead if he so much as mentioned her hair again. If it had been Kakashi-_sensei_, she would have beat him around anytime, knowing he would just jokingly bemoan her abuse. But this Kakashi was 12 and uncaring, and she was forced to reign in her temper for now.

The prodigy stepped into her room for a fifth time in May, hopping onto the cot.

"I'm taking your height, get off," Sakura demanded.

"I just got on."

"So. Get off."

"Just do the rest of the examination first, obaa-chan."

She bristled. "I have to follow standard procedural protocol. Get off." This wasn't entirely true- nobody actually cared about the order of the examination, but Sakura was cranky, and she wasn't in the mood to deal with the 13-year-old's proclivity of condescension. He seemed to be aware of this, as he spared her a withering look. But he was kind enough to comply, hopping off and stepping up to the stadiometer.

"You've grown since I last saw you." His eyes lit up, and though he didn't smile, she knew he was begging to know how much."2 centimeters. You're still short." His eyes narrowed, and he was more resigned than usual (if that was possible) for the rest of the exam, seeming to play the cold shoulder. When Sakura finished, he left the room without a word.

But the sixth month was different. He'd been rushed to the ER, she'd heard, an emergency she hadn't been assigned to. However, only a half hour into the operation, she was called into the procedure. As she sprinted to the room, she passed by Rin and Minato, but Obito was missing. _So. It's happened_, Sakura thought sadly. The pretty girl was sobbing uncontrollably, gasping through tears as Minato patted his hand against her back, speechless.

Kakashi, not his usual detached and unmoved self, was gripping the steel bars of the stretcher and shaking violently, his hands streaked with blood. The entire right side of his face was covered in red, and a long, fresh scar cut through his-

_Sharingan_.

"Sakura-san, it's being rejected, we don't have any of Obito's blood-"

"Step aside," Sakura interrupted the medic's frenzied diagnosing, drawing chakra to her fingertips. When she placed her fingers against his pressure points, his body stopped trembling. His eyes slid shut and his entire body fell limp, hands sliding off the safety bars. The glow dissipated, and Sakura pulled his Sharingan-eye open. The white of his eye was no longer white, but a deep red, and several blood vessels had exploded. _Not to mention, the cut is so deep his body can't keep up with healing it. _

She stepped back, assessing the situation, then immediately snapped into medic-mode. "We need to stop his body from attacking Obito's transplant. Gather the medication for that while I ward off the attacking antigens. This is going to be a long process, boys." She'd already began pouring chakra into her right hand; it glowed pink instead of green, and she placed it over his eye. "Could somebody get me a chair?"

* * *

5 hours later, the reddening of Kakashi's eye had died significantly. Sakura had healed the bottom layers of his skin on the cut crossing his eye, but decided not to expend an unnecessary amount of energy on it, as she still had to help his body acclimate. Despite her medical prowess, she just didn't have enough chakra to completely heal every wound and still fight off his body's natural reaction, so he would have to deal with the scar for the rest of his life.

Sakura leaned against the stretcher, visibly worn. She wiped the sweat from her brow with her unoccupied hand. A few other medics were on stand-by, watching her work her magic. "He'll be fine in a few minutes. I've allowed Obito's antigens to spread through a majority of his system. Hopefully over time Kakashi's body will become immune to Obito's foreign antigens, but for the next few months he'll be on medication. Somebody'll have to tend specifically to Kakashi over that time. Any volunteers?"

Nobody raised their hand. Apparently Kakashi's impertinent attitude was well-known. "Fine," Sakura snarled, "you're all dismissed." The medics scattered, leaving just her and the boy.

Picking her hand up from Kakashi's eye at last, she passed her green chakra through his pressure points and Kakashi eyes flew open. Immediately, they welled up with tears.

"I wish I were dead."

Sakura said nothing, choosing instead to press a warm hand to his cheek and brush a thumb over his forehead. "Obito-kun wants you alive," she murmured kindly. Her heart hurt for the both of them.

Kakashi's new, mismatched eyes widened, and the pool of tears slid down his face. He blinked, looking away without uttering a word. "Why me?" The wear and tear of the entire event showed through his raspy voice. He was completely vulnerable, something Sakura didn't know Kakashi was even capable of feeling.

_But all of this... he really is still a child._

Amidst all the perverted jokes and eye-crease-smiles, bell fights and A-class missions, she had failed to ever realize that Kakashi hadn't always been the S-class bingo-book, porn-reading, killing machine and had once, too, been just a boy. Laying in front of her, shoulders heaving from his silent but uncontrollable sobs, was a kid who was still trying to figure out life.

And the life of a ninja, no less.

She seated herself by his waist, cranking the stretcher so that he was sitting up. His eyes had lost all sheen, appearing dull and listless. The red was no longer from bodily malfunction but from tears. Pulling his hitae-ate out of his hair, she gathered the boy into her arms, rubbing his back.

His head dropped to her shoulder, and his fingers clutched her uniform tightly.

* * *

"I'll be seeing you every day for the rest of the month, got it?" The pink-haired medic spun her stool to face him. He had rested in the hospital for a week, and she could see him getting jittery. Grief was still etched onto his face, showing in the dark bags and half-lidded eyes, but he had been responsive during psychological treatment. He was about to roll out of his cot before Sakura started, a realization dawning on her. "Since you're not the original owner of the Sharingan, I don't think you can turn it off,"

"I've noticed," he nodded quietly.

"You'll have to cover it with something so that you don't expend chakra mindlessly when you aren't using it." He nodded again. "C'mere, you," she smiled a little, pulling the boy by his arms. Once he was facing her, she pulled down the right side of his hitae-ate. "There you go. That should be good enough." When she backed away to revel in her work of art, she noticed the faint pink above the edges of his mask. Concerned, her eyebrows creased. "Do you still have a fever? Are you feeling hot?" The back of her hand met his forehead.

"N-no."

Her eyes softened and she glimpsed again at the colouring quizzically. "Alright, well, you can go now."

The next morning, the boy arrived to his medical check-up 10 minutes late, something that intrigued Sakura, as he had always shown up early or exactly on time before. "You're late," startling herself at the familiarity of the words.

Flustered, he fumbled with his words. "Uh, tr-tree. There was a tree. With a cat. I had to... get it, you know?" His cheeks were flaming red like the fire hydrants that lined Konoha's streets. Sakura's eyebrows shot up.

"Alright," Sakura replied disbelievingly, pointing to the seat across from her. He obeyed without argument. She slid a piece of paper towards him.

"What is this?"

"Draw."

"Why?"

"Don't ask questions, just do it."

"I refuse."

The medic-nin huffed. "How can you be so stubborn even after Obito died?" As soon as the words left her mouth, she wished she could grab them and shove them back down her throat. The light in his eyes had gone out. _Stupid stupid stupid! _She beat herself up. "Oh, Kakashi-kun, I'm so sorry, I just- I didn't think- and-"

"Obito didn't have to be crushed."

He said it so quietly she almost didn't catch it.

"He could've just left me there."

Sakura responded just as quietly, "and have him sitting here instead of you?" Kakashi's eyes flashed at her.

"He deserves to be alive. More than I do."

"What makes you say that? I thought you guys hated each other?"

He hung his head. "He activated his Sharingan when he was saving me. He wanted to save me that badly."

"Oh." There was a pregnant pause; the air was heavy with regret. "Obito-kun understood something that very few ninja seem to have a grasp on."

"I always thought he was trash cause he broke all the rules, but-"

"He never abandoned his teammates." Sakura finished. Kakashi's head whipped up in shock.

"You- how?" He was staring at her in timid awe, mixed with some fear and trepidation.

"Oh, let's just say I know more than I let on," she smiled lightly, turning away from him and grabbing her opthalmoscope. "I think that's good enough for today, I'll just check your eye and then you can leave, Kakashi-kun-"

"You can just call me Kakashi."

Pleasantly surprised, she replied in like, "you can call me Sakura, then." He blushed again, and Sakura suddenly realized what was going on. She couldn't help but to smile. _What a little boy. _Ruffling his hair (_ha! This never gets old! _She crooned), she pulled up his forehead protector, shining a light into his transplant. "Everything's looking good," straightening back up, she sat back in her stool to scribble on the form. "See you tomorrow."

He was 30 minutes late the next day. "I- I met an old lady who needed help with her groceries," he mumbled, not looking her in the eyes, but a shade less red than yesterday.

"Mmmkay," Sakura humored him, patting the cot. "How's Rin?" Another medic had been assigned to her.

"I think... I'm taking it better than her," the thought didn't please him, Sakura could see it in his eyes. "I think it's because Obito loved her so much. She feels guilty she could never love him back." He looked pensive for a moment. "I think performing the surgery shook her up quite a lot, too."

"She transplanted your eye?" At his nod, she breathed out her amazement. "Wow." Although the process itself wasn't difficult, it was detail-intensive. A single mistake could blind the patient, which often made the procedure more tiring than difficult. "I'll be sure to take her under my wing some time," Sakura joked.

"She would like that," Kakashi hummed. "She likes you a lot." His face flushed again, and Sakura sniggered inside. _This is just too funny_.

"Well, I like her," Smiling, she made a grab for her opthalmoscope, only to bang it against the wall. The medic-nin hissed in pain, cradling her hand.

"Are you ok?" He asked in alarm.

She forgot all about her pain at the note of concern in his intonation. Her mind reeled back to the memory of his blasé put-off when she had first appeared in his time. She had been sporting massive bruises and cuts, yet a small bang-up now had him worrying? The incident with Obito had really affected him. "I'm fine, don't worry."

The rest of the month passed uneventfully, save for the hour she shared each day with the 13-year-old. Each day his smiles grew wider, he arrived later, and his lies became smoother.

"I know you're lying, Kakashi, you might as well quit it," Sakura attempted one morning. _If I'm going to watch his habits form, I might as well try to put a stop to some of them while I can-_

"Lies? I would never lie to you, obaa-chan."

_Nevermind. It's too late_.

* * *

Apparently, Konoha was still painfully blazing and humid in September, even 18 years into the past. Even with the AC blasting, Sakura fanned herself with the folder of her next patient. She had dismissed Kakashi permanently three days ago as planned. His body had adjusted to the foreign agents and his eye was causing him absolutely no problems.

What she hadn't expected was for him to show up at her door late in the night. When she opened her door to the single knock, she was met by his dark face, and her stomach promptly twisted into knots. His eye was flat and emotionless again. It was pouring, and his hair dripped miserably, and she ushered him in.

The entire night, he said absolutely nothing. When Sakura offered him soup, he failed to react, fixated on his hands. Eventually, Sakura handed him a pillow and draped a quilt over his shoulders, taking refuge in her own room. When she woke up, he was gone. Apprehension gnawed at her conscious as she walked to the hospital, and she had to force herself to stop chewing at her bottom lip.

When she entered through the automatic sliding doors, the normally quiet entrance was buzzing quietly.

"Where was Minato?"

"It wasn't a mission. The girl had been kidnapped."

"Kidnapped?"

"They were trying to use her as a vessel."

"... Jinchuuriki?"

Her anxiety levels increased and she walked quickly up the stairs to her floor, but the gossip was unavoidable.

"He had to do it-" Her coworker halted in her explanation as soon as she saw Sakura.

Sakura fled to her room, slamming the heavy door open with a single hand. Sure enough, Kakashi was standing in the center of the room, looking lost. "I killed her," his voice cracked.

"Oh, Kakashi," Sakura breathed, falling to her knees and pulling the boy into her arms. "I'm so sorry."

He cried.

And so did she.

* * *

Treatment was much more demanding this time.

"Is this how she felt?" Was his most frequent question. "When Obito died?" His head had always been down. "She loved me." His voice shook with anger. "And I couldn't love her back," he spat, gripping his hair in his fists, looking as if he would pull it out.

"I didn't mean to do it- it was an accident. She walked into my hand. But- I still-" His hands tightened, always.

Sakura found herself wrestling his fingers out of those fists frequently. The scars from where his nails dug into flesh never disappeared during the duration of his sessions, permanent crescent moons of red marring only slightly-callused palms.

It broke her heart even more to know that his palms would only become more callused, and his hands more covered in blood.

"Kakashi, they were going to leave sooner or later, it just so happened that she was sooner-"

"Why?!" He would yell back vehemently, lashing out. "What am I supposed to do now?!"

Sakura searched for words.

In a much more subdued tone, he asked, "when is it my turn?"

It could have been a simple question, asked out of fear of the possibility of his own untimely death, but Sakura knew he had a death wish. "Rin and Obito would be disappointed," she said through her teeth, fighting the desire to beat him up for his insolence. "Seeing you dead would only mean you left their dreams behind. You're all that's left for them. You're their only hope."

The glint in his eyes was just as hard as the one in hers. He stormed out of the room, and she didn't chase him down.

His birthday passed in a whirlwind of therapy sessions. What began as hard, hot rage simmered into a cool, sly self-defense mechanism. It took until January of the next year for his self-hate to regress, and during all the time of inching improvement, he came later and later to his appointments, until he was clocking out a personal record of 6 hours.

One day, as Sakura entered the room (hours after the appointed time), he had looked up from the ground, looking utterly spent.

"I'm tired, Sakura."

She let him cry a little bit before handing him a lollipop (he managed to glimpse at her with weak ire, but when she smiled gently at him, his pitiful glare dropped and he took it without a word.

Slowly, he immersed himself back into everyday life, his smiles only a little less enthusiastic than before. Sakura had been marking away the days on a calendar, and that night, a panic settled to the pit of her stomach. The year was coming to a close. _I've spent almost a year here_.

_Wait._

_Kakashi turned 14 this year. _

_I'm 14 years younger than him._

A cold jolt of fear traveled through her spine.

_March 28th is only two months away._

* * *

a/n: Thanks for reading, everybody!

I just wanted to leave another reminder that each chapter will cover about a year. I know, that's a lot for one chapter. I guess if I really have to, I'll split one year into two parts (but I'm hoping to avoid that).

And, uuuuh, I'm not a doctor, HAHAHA. My mom is a nurse, but I pretty much suck at science and math, so I did as much research to make the medical stuff make sense, but if it actually works in real life... who knows, HA. But this is the ninja world, so we can pretend!

Yeah... this was a pretty tragic chapter. Don't worry. They won't all be this bad (it will take time. Kakashi had a pretty tragic childhood). I have each chapter planned out in another file. If anybody is curious, Sakura dropped into past-Konoha around March.

Thanks for the reviews! To be honest, I was surprised that when I woke up (got started on the second chapter, forced myself to sleep at 4 HAHAA, woke up, was pleasantly surprised!) and already had 3 reviews. And I got a little giddy when one of the reviewers said they'd been waiting for another "good quality" time-travel-fic HEH HEH HEH -preens- LOL JK!

I keep coming back to edit and replace this chapter, so it might be doing funny things, I'm not sure. Just shows me how much I really do need to read over these... Alright. I'll do it. LOL.

Lastly, I'm going to Europe for vacation, so don't expect an update until at least after the 19th of June. But two chapters in two days is pretty nice... so I guess consider this my gift to sustain you as I'm gone! LOL. I also read the most recent Shippuden chapter as I was writing this, and phew, goosebumps!

I'm excited that you guys are interested! Thanks (one more time HAHAHA) for the follows, favorites, and views! Reviews really make me happy eeehehehehee


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3- Sakura, 18; Kakashi, 14_

"Mizuki-san, is it alright if I take the 28th of March off?" Sakura hugged the forms she'd been carrying to her chest, praying that Mizuki would concede.

She let out a sigh of relief when her supervisor agreed easily. "Fine by me, you definitely deserve it. What's the occasion? If you don't mind me asking. It's only February, after all."

"Oh, nothing much. I've been feeling pretty tired lately, I think my shifts are catching up to me."

Truthfully though, Sakura was worried about the possibility of delivering her own birth, which just seemed _too weird_. And to disclose her birthday in the hospital (outside of her employee documents) only to later have a pink-haired girl born on the same day would be suspicious. Sure, she wasn't the only pink-haired person around, but the recessive gene was few and far between. Not to mention when the nurses recorded her name, the coincidence would be too good to be true... Sakura shuddered. _Better not think about it._

And really, how many other green-eyed, pink-haired, March 28th girls were there?

Her real plans for the date included buying multiple tubs of ice cream, renting a few movies, and maybe buying a cake, all so that she could stuff herself and cry until she couldn't see through her swollen eyes.

That said, the next day, she began her application for a new apartment in the Bamboo district- the Petal district posed a greater risk for running into any of the young Team 7. Plus, all of Bamboo was shinobi- it was common knowledge that civilians had a hard time adjusting to ninja habits, so ninja tended to commune together.

As for the rest of the week, it passed quickly. She had discharged Kakashi at the beginning of February, deeming him "sane" enough (he had rolled his eyes at the term) and thus ending their daily interaction.

She started chuckling at her memory of their last meeting. In the middle of a nonchalant description of how he had completely destroyed his latest opponent (_such a boy_, Sakura had mused), his voice had cracked, leaving him utterly horrified. He said absolutely nothing for the rest of the exam, and she was pretty sure he would be talking a lot less until he was 18, give or take a few.

Or, knowing the taciturn Kakashi of her time, perhaps the habit would never really lift.

Now, however, she rarely ever saw him. Sometimes when she was shopping in the market she would see a flash of silver from the corner of her eye, but when she checked, she found nobody familiar. _Am I so desperate for company that I'm imagining things now?_ Sakura would admonish herself, her brow furrowing as she shook her head.

But every night, particularly this one, a little voice in the back of her head would remind her exactly how lonely she was. Tonight she was watching the latest episode of a popular drama, curled in her pink, fleece blanket, the TV lighting her face in various hues. At a particularly interesting plot twist, Sakura turned the screen off, sighed, and looked up at her ceiling.

"This is pathetic," she groaned, face sliding into her covers. But the hard reality was that she _couldn't _make any close friends- she was already toeing the line with Kakashi. She hoped that all the other growing shinobi she'd examined (Asuma, Kurenai, Gai, to name a few) wouldn't remember her 14 years from now.

Still, as she sat in the dark room, swallowed up by pink fleece, she couldn't help that her heart ached for company, especially a specific hyperactive blond, broody Uchiha, emotionless ROOT-nin, and even her perverted ex-teacher.

Giving up on TV to keep her entertained, Sakura picked herself up and trudged to her bed. As she lay, staring at her ceiling and twiddling her thumbs, she fretted over the future. _Should I tell somebody about my situation? Should I tell somebody about Kurama? _But she knew nobody would believe her, and she was afraid to compromise her future.

Knowing what would happen on the day of Naruto's birth only made living in this era _that _much harder. She was certain that the reason why so many missions were being passed out was because strange situations that needed analysis were continuously popping up; based on the number of ninja in the hospital, none of these assignments were turning out well. A shiver of fear ran up the medic's spine.

She shook off her unease, turning onto her side and willing herself to sleep.

* * *

The days passed per usual: work, market-browsing (many of the salespeople had become familiar with her), then home. _I should really set aside some time for training_.

A week before her birthday, Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard Kakashi greet her from behind in her exam room.

"Yo." He was squatting on the hospital bed in his characteristic way, forearms resting on his knees.

"You're three hours late," she quipped, looking at him disapprovingly.

"I saw a cat drowning. You would've saved it, too, wouldn't you?"

"Are you questioning my morality, Hatake-san?" She responded easily and casually, swiping a few of her instruments with alcohol pads. "And isn't this the sixth cat? Are you sure you're not the one drowning them?"

He chose to ignore her later jab, addressing only the former. "I don't know, Sakura-chan. I think anybody would call your morality into question after the way you man-handled that poor guy at the takoyaki concession stand yesterday."

She flushed deeply as her head whipped to the now-fourteen-year-old. He was grinning widely. "You saw that?"

"Hard not to," that obnoxious and vexing grin was still on his face- how she longed to wipe it off with a well-placed punch. "I'm pretty sure everybody within 10 miles could hear you screaming."

"That _poor guy_," she spat it out as if he was anything _but _unfortunate, "was asking for it," she returned to her tools with a vengeance. "_He grabbed my butt!_" When he snickered, Sakura whacked him over the head.

"Alright, alright," rubbing the back of his head, he pulled his legs out from under him, sitting at the edge of the bed. "Can we just get started?"

Shooting him a dirty look, she stabbed him in the chest with her pointer finger. He winced, rubbing the area. "You know what to do," she left for the restroom as he stripped, planning to treat him as roughly as possible when she got back. Upon arrival, however, all thoughts of mistreatment flew out of her mind. "What happened?!"

Scars of different lengths and depths littered his body. Dried blood marred _usually_ pale skin- if it weren't for the bruises. One especially large mark on his ribs was turning an angry shade of purple. When she poked it, he winced. Judging by the amount of healing his body had attempted, he had sported his injuries for _much _longer than three hours. Even his knuckles were scabbing over. Softer this time, she repeated her question. He still didn't reply. She poked another bruise.

"Will you cut it out?" Slapping her hands away, he reached for his black shirt.

"Not until you tell me what happened," the pinkette retorted, grabbing his clothing.

His tone was flat. "Nothing. I just ran into somebody I knew."

"Do you regularlybeat up people you know?" As if to emphasize her point, Sakura backed off, hands in the air.

His eyes narrowed. "He had something to do with Rin. He mentioned something about regretting my actions, after I handed his ass to him." He scoffed as if the idea of him regretting anything was utterly impossible. "Something about a vessel and a nine-tails."

Sakura froze, flashes of Naruto's orange chakra releasing spontaneously replaying in her mind.

"Hello?"

She snapped out of her reverie at the sound of his voice. Her hands had stopped midway through administering chakra to his wounds, and when she met his eyes, he looked decidedly worried. _Did he have a run-in with the Akatsuki? _Taking her hand off of the healed cut, she pressed an alcohol pad against another injury on his bicep.

But when she asked, his description matched none of the Akatsuki members' appearances. And it wasn't as if Kakashi had forgotten, because first, Kakashi never forgot. And second, the Akatsuki was nothing if not memorable. Even an idiot would recognize them. All she could conjecture, then, was that the man was only slightly associated with the group. In fact, he probably wasn't at all, because Akatsuki rarely called others to do their dirty work.

It was sheer luck, then, that Kakashi hadn't been disposed of in whatever little trifle that had gone down.

"Ow, cut it out!" He snapped again, fighting her hands off. Her gentle wiping had gradually turned into vigorous rubbing, no thanks to her increasing agitation.

Without apologizing, she fell into her stool. "Kakashi, you need to take a break."

"_What?_" He looked at her as if she had four eyes.

"You need to stop taking missions. Until... until December or something." Sakura deliberately chose a date after October.

His eyebrows rose. "Do I have some sort of life-threatening illness?"

The medic started worrying her bottom lip; Kakashi stared at her mouth, looking intensely interested before blushing and shaking his head feverishly, as if an annoying fly was buzzing around him. Again, without properly replying, Sakura stood up and pulled his forehead protector up. What she saw stopped her heart.

"_Kakashi! _When were you going to tell me about this?!" She shrieked incredulously at the blood dripping from his eye, still fresh and bright red.

"Never," he mumbled, tugging his band back down.

'Handed his ass to him'?! Your _eyeball _is _bleeding_! _Profusely!_"

"It was my first time using it, ok?"

"You're _definitely _not going on anymore missions. I'm writing an excuse note for the Hokage right away. I can't believe you!" After ransacking her newly organized drawers for 2 minutes, she found a pen and paper. "I can't believe you!" She repeated again, scribbling furiously.

"Jeez, Sakura, you're acting like you're my mom or something," Kakashi griped under his breath, arms folding as he hunched forward.

Without thinking, she swiveled sharply to him and grabbed his face, ready to give him a new bruise. But upon seeing his still childish face, she lost the momentum for her anger. Kakashi sat stiffly, staring her boldly in the eye, waiting for the blow. With a sigh, she slipped her thumb under the hitae-ate and began to heal his eye.

"The first time is usually bad. The last time isthe worst," she added ominously. "I'm still sending that note- you have two months off. Take that time to figure out your eye."

His body relaxed when she said 'two months', and when she was done, he leapt off the bed. "Thanks." His eye widened and he clapped a hand to his mouth.

Sakura burst into hysterical laughter at his pubescent voice.

* * *

_Happy birthday to me, I'm finally eighteen, Happy birthday dear Sakura, thetruthisthatyou'rebeingbornsomewhereinthevillage rightnow_, she blew out the candles on her cake, feeling lonelier than she ever had. Usually Naruto would burst into her room on the morning of her birthday, howling about _cake _and _ramen _and dragging her around town for the entire day. Sasuke would join about midway through the evening, more chivalrous than usual, and even Kakashi would leave a flower on her doorstep come midnight (always late).

_Well, at least I'll definitely know when I hit the lowest point in my life_. Without further ado, she grabbed the spoon beside her and dug into the cake.

As a treat, she'd woken up at 11 in the morning instead of her usual 6:30, pulling her pink rat's nest into a ponytail and eating breakfast at a homey looking cafe she'd had her eye on for a while. For the rest of the day until 8, she'd shopped, spending so much that Ino would have held a candle to her. Part of her purchase included the dress she was currently wearing. And the DVDs sitting on the corner of her dining table, waiting to be watched.

And the two tubs of triple fudge chocolate chip ice cream in her freezer, waiting to be shoveled into her mouth. After she was finished scarfing down the cake, of course.

And sometime before she downed a glass of that aged wine she'd purchased.

_Oh, who am I kidding, I'll probably swallow more tears than anything else tonight, _Sakura thought dryly, pushing a movie into the DVD player. There was a swift knock at her door, and when she pulled it open-

"Kakashi-sensei?" When he raised his eyebrows at her, she fumbled over her slip-up. _Shoot shoot shoot! _"Kakashi-san. Sorry. I was- I'd been thinking about my old teacher. You know. When people accidentally say what they're thinking about," she started rambling again. "His name was Kisuke. I called him Kisuke-sensei. And you're Kakashi, so I just- nevermind. Aaanyyyywaaaayysss," she laughed nervously. "What brings you here?"

"Happy birthday."

She blinked. "How did you know?"

"I saw you buying the cake and the candles." _And the ice cream, and the wine, _his eyes seemed to add. Sakura grinned sheepishly.

"Oh. Ok. Thanks," she was still reeling from her earlier mishap, trying to pull herself back together. "You can come in if you want."

He pushed passed her, almost as if he were eager to see her living space. Raising an eyebrow, Sakura closed the door and made her way to the fridge, pulling out the ice cream.

"Ice cream?"

"No."

"Cake?"

"No." _Trying to keep his mouth shut, I see_, Sakura snickered. Kakashi looked at her darkly, aware of exactly why she was giggling.

"Fine, more for me then!" She sing-songed, disregarding proper etiquette and grabbing her pre-used spoon.

A third of the way into the movie, Kakashi spoke up.

"I stopped by the hospital to find you, you know." He continued when her eyes flickered to him. "At first it was cause my eye was bleeding again," he had her full attention now. "Another nurse got it. But I saw something on the way out."

She had a crawling suspicion that she knew what it was. The way he was looking at her suggested he knew that she knew, but he said it anyways.

"A birth certificate."

Sakura shrugged as indifferently as she could, answering through a mouthful of chocolate ice cream. "Lots of births every day. Every day's a birth day," she laughed at her little pun, snorting a little.

His stare lingered for a few seconds before he turned his dark eyes back to the TV.

By the second movie, she had finished both tubs _and _the cake- obviously, there was a monster hidden in the depths of her stomach. Still, though, a feeling of dissatisfaction plagued her, and she traipsed to the kitchen to grab the bottle of wine. She hesitated for a moment before shrugging it off. _What the heck, today's _my_ day_.

She had enough sense to grab a glass to sip from, but by the end of the movie, what was intended to help her restrain had done absolutely nothing. Fortunately for her, years with Tsunade had trained not only her strength and chakra-control, but also her alcohol tolerance, leaving her only thoroughly buzzed- enough to loosen her lips, but not enough to turn her into a fool.

"Kakashi," her words were only slightly slurred. She cocked her head at him. "Are you only friends with me cause you know I have no other friends?" _Nothing like a little liquid courage_, she thought sourly at the clingy words that left her mouth.

After looking at her sideways, he said absolutely nothing.

"I'll take that as a 'yes,'" she grumbled, pouring herself another glass. "You big jerk." She paused in her pouring, blinking owlishly at him. "No. You _little_ jerk. Cause you're fourteen. Hehe. You're a little kid," he then proceeded to shoot her a nasty glare when she tweaked his nose. "Don't worry about it. You'll turn out fine."

If she thought about it, he'd turn out _more _than fine. And she didn't mean just his career. The Kakashi she had known was admittedly attractive. Too bad the man was altogether romantically uninclined. _Poor sap_.

The _current_ Kakashi, however, was somewhat gangly. She looked him over, _hmm-_ing and _ha-_ing, making the young-jounin uncomfortable. He shifted under her intense, investigating, green gaze. He had muscle, that was for sure, but she could definitely see the awkward-teenage stage in the way his limbs hung, as if he didn't know what to do with his appendages. In fact, the more she scrutinized him, the more _malnourished _he looked. She guessed that he rarely had a proper meal. "Yupp. Definitely a little kid."

"Killing 13 people hardly constitutes as _young_, Sakura," his tone sounded extremely Team 7 Kakashi-esque, and Sakura rubbed her eyes to make sure it was the fourteen-year-old and not her former-sensei sitting beside her.

She didn't bother with a reply, choosing instead to settle back into her corner of the couch. He followed suit in his own corner. By the time the credits rolled, he was fast asleep. Sakura smiled, smoothing her covers over the boy and tiptoeing into her room. _You may have killed 13 people and you may be in tons of bingo books already, but you still can't help but to fall asleep before 12._

When the pinkette woke up at 3 in the morning to use the bathroom, she felt a heat radiating from the center of her back. Sometime in the night, the kid had stumbled through the hallway and crawled under her covers to curl against her spine. Upon returning, she stood on her side of the bed, sighed, and slipped back under, letting the boy off this time.

It figured that the first time she shared a bed with a male, it would be with somebody she was basically babysitting. And it was just her luck that the first time she made breakfast for a male, it was for someone who, if she wasn't incorrect, seemed to have a mother-complex (that he was confusing for a crush, no less). _Oh well, what can you do about it_, she groused, blowing on the pork buns she'd prepared for the morning.

Kakashi walked into the room rubbing his sleep-filled eyes, just as she shook the eggs off the end of her spatula onto his plate. She stirred the porridge in the pot on the stove, tossing in some scallions. "Smells good," he croaked. The chair he pulled out scraped against the wooden floor.

"My assessment last night determined that you hadn't eaten a good meal in a while," she commented, bringing the porridge to a simmer. With a ladle, she scooped a heaping portion into a bowl, holding it by its edges as she placed it in front of him. She wondered if she looked strangely domestic to the pre-teen, who was accustomed to seeing her hands beat touchy males and heal broken people, not cook. Sakura sure _felt _domestic right now.

He grunted noncommittally before lifting the bowl to his mouth and gulping voraciously. _Well, that answers that_, Sakura thought dryly, cleaning off her hands on a kitchen towel. "You need to eat to grow, you know. You don't want to be stuck at 153 centimeters your entire life, do you?"

"There are advantages to being small," he chirped, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand before getting up for seconds.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't you ever go out to eat?"

"No. Too much money."

"Oh, what, you don't ditch the bill and leave somebody else to pay?" Sarcasm tinted her tone, but when Kakashi looked at her funny, she had a feeling that he actually _didn't. _

"No..." He answered, genuinely confused. Then he grinned cheekily. "But thanks for the idea."

The girl slapped her face. _I'm creating the monster that is Hatake Kakashi, aren't I?_

Without further ado, she left Kakashi in the kitchen to go change. Minato had been placed as Hokage around the time of Rin's death, but due to the circumstance, had found it inappropriate to celebrate. During the year, the nurses' uniforms had gotten progressively shorter, and Sakura now knew why. She'd never pinned Minato as a closet pervert, but judging by his past, it was no doubt a product of being under Jiraiya's tutelage. Naruto popped into mind, and Sakura rolled her eyes (anymore eye-rolling today and she would probably pass out). _Like father, like son. _

"I'm going to work, you don't have to lock the door. Eat until your ribs stop showing." He nodded through a face full of pork bun, and she rolled her eyes one last time before leaving.

* * *

As the months passed, Konoha began to buzz more and more with rumors, stirring up worry in direct proportion to the gossip. Apparently, word had gotten out about the hospital being full to the brim with shinobi.

When Kakashi's final month of rest ended, he immediately picked up a mission. Sakura knew because he walked in two weeks after his "house arrest," scratched, scarred, and bruised like before, but without the bloody eye. To add to her relief, he had shot up 3 more centimeters since the last time she'd measured him. _Looks like he's going through his growth spurt. _

To be blunt, it was weird to watch her future mentor go through puberty. Though still gracelessly lean and lanky, he had filled out just a little bit, and she wondered if it had anything to do with the containers of grub she left on his doorstep every other morning.

The hospital became so busy that every minute of every day, every room was filled. As soon as one patient left, another entered. The medics couldn't catch a break, and on a cool October night, all hell broke loose.

One minute, Konoha had been busy and bustling per usual, and the next minute, there had been an ear-shattering, inhuman shriek.

Sakura knew what had happened.

The jounin she had been tending to immediately sprung from the cot, leaping out the window. "_Wait, you're not- but I- come back-_" Sakura had spluttered, reaching out the window before dropping her hand. She knew that, had it been her, she would have done the exact same thing. Unfortunately, she couldn't compromise her situation, so she was forced to dwell in the hospital, recognizing that she would be here all night and morning, stitching together gushing gashes, gluing together broken bones, and reattaching severed limbs.

At one point, the entire village shook violently, sending buildings toppling. From the window, Sakura could see the orange glow the beast was emitting, and she occasionally caught glimpses of its tails swinging wildly. Wheeling a groaning ANBU into the special-operations room, despair sifted to the bottom of her stomach like sediment.

She couldn't help but to dwell on the fact that tonight was the night Naruto's suffering would begin, and she was completely powerless to help him.

* * *

She hadn't slept for two nights. It felt absolutely wrong to tuck herself into her warm bed when so many shinobi needed assistance, even though the wreck had ended the morning after it had started. Still, chunins and jounins, even genins, were still filing in hours after the event. The pink-haired medic was sure she had dark circles around her eyes, but it didn't stop her from smiling sincerely at each person who passed by her room.

Kakashi stopped by her house the third night, as she was preparing to finally fall into bed. His hands were swollen, shiny, and red, as if burned, no doubt because of the amount of chakra he had dispensed through that area of contact.

"Is it bad to become use to death?" He asked, swinging his legs against the wall beneath the window. His back was to her and his tone was offhand, but his pulsing hands were white at the knuckles as he squeezed the wooden window sill. It cracked, splintering.

Sakura swallowed, willing her voice to speak around the lump in her throat. She knew why he was asking- the Hokage and his wife were laying side by side on two stretchers in the special-operations room as they spoke, covered with mint green sheets. Their entire bodies had been shielded from view, save for their hands, which were intertwined. When she had accidentally walked upon the scene, she had had to excuse herself, choking back tears. She had paced to the smallest stall in the nearest bathroom before breaking into tears, clenched fist to her mouth.

She thought carefully about her answer, before settling for the truth. "I don't know."

His stare bore into her, but eventually, his eye creased into what seemed to be a smile. "Ah, I see."

It was the first time she'd seem him smile that way on his small body; though it had been so familiar on the older-jounin, the smile was odd and misplaced on the younger-jounin. It occurred to her that he was using it as a mask for his melancholy, and an image of Sai, with his superficial smile that looked unnervingly similar to Kakashi's current expression, popped into her mind.

"Did you know, Sakura?" Kakashi whispered, smile dropping as his eyes pinned her down. They weren't accusatory, but they weren't forgiving.

She knew what he was asking. "Know about what?"

Much like the night of her birthday, he said nothing, silently acknowledging that Sakura was not going to reply. _Smart boy_, Sakura mused grimly.

"Nevermind," the smile was back. As quickly as he had pulled the wall done, he had built it back up.

In that instance, she would have traded anything to see him cry, rather than masquerade his pain under the pleasant crease of his eye. It use to annoy her, but now it scared her. He left, not saying anything more.

For the next few weeks, all ninja involved in the entire fiasco underwent psychological analysis. This time though, Kakashi didn't need therapy.

For some reason, this worried Sakura more than when he needed intensive therapy.

* * *

n/a: Wahoooo, managed to whip out a chapter during my trip! I looked over it this time (quite a few times, in fact), so hopefully there will be fewer errors. Sorry if you do happen to come across any. :

So these past few days, we've been traveling on a commercial bus, and each stop takes hours to get to. I spend a lot of these hours fleshing out the outline I have for the story and each chapter. All this planning is making super paranoid. I realize that despite having a ton of interaction between Kakashi and Sakura, I don't know how well I'm doing with characterization, so I'm hoping to improve that in the coming chapters. I love reviews because they're super encouraging, but I love 'em, too, cause you guys can tell me what to do better, LOL.

I just to address Kakashi's character. I'm not sure if he comes off as OOC to any of you guys, and I wouldn't be surprised if you guys do think that. I've been worrying about it, but the thing is, other then the party-pooping, pre-Obito Kakashi, there isn't much to work off of, so in a way, how Kakashi is as a kid is in my hands, LOL (be afraid. Be very afraid. LOL JK). What I have is that he used to be a joy-kill, and then somehow, he is who we all know him to be. The other thing about Kakashi is that he's anything _but _two-dimensional- I think Kishimoto makes that very clear in the manga. It's just that somebody needs to figure him out. And who better than Sakura? HEH. HEH HEH HEH. /end creepy laughter

And laastlyyyyy... A lot of times in fics, Kakashi is portrayed as tough with this shell around his heart because of all the death he's experienced. But I personally think that Kakashi has it all sorted out. Sure, he's not falling in love left and right, but I don't associate that with his hard life; I see it more as the fact that he's not really interested in anybody... LOL. I believe Kakashi's learned from his experiences, and he's learned not to be jaded.

SO THANK YOU ALL FOR READING AS FAR AS YOU HAVE! I LOVE REVIEWS! PLEASE HELP ME OUT HERE!


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4- Sakura, 19; Kakashi, 15_

Konoha tolled in the new year with celebration and enthusiasm, a nice change from the weeks of dreary black in honor of the shinobi who had lost their lives in the battle. Minato's assistant was currently in charge of the village affairs until a new Hokage was elected, which would be around February. As for Naruto, he was in the hands of the governing authority, to be used for their discretion.

Sakura nursed a bottle of warm sake between her hands, cup forgotten on the side. She sat idly and alone at the counter of a bar at the outskirts of the festival; around her, throngs of well-dressed people chattered excitedly. She, however, was drowning her anxiety with liquor.

_I need something stronger_.

Her hair hung loose around her face, and the cotton sleeves of her simple, green yukata dragged against the marble counter as she pulled the bottle up, tipping her head back and swallowing whatever contents was left in one go. The alcohol burned a hot trail down her throat, leaving a warm ache in the pit of her stomach.

The village bell, hanging from the tower on top of the mountain, rung in the new year as fireworks burst in the sky. Illuminated tears welled up in Sakura's eyes, slipping off her eyelashes as she began her third year stuck in the past.

* * *

The work load at the hospital had slowed down considerably now that the entire Jinchuuriki ordeal was over, and Sakura had time to stop by the library everyday for hours. Kakashi had gradually stopped coming, which left her with a lot of free-time, to her surprise. She hadn't known he'd taken up so much of her empty hours, but apparently, he had. And frankly, she found it disconcerting and rather lonely to find him gone.

She didn't make it a point to find him, choosing instead to hole herself up in the library and scan through the indexes and tables of contents in every book available that could possibly house information on her situation. For months, Sakura found nothing, save for a small article in the newspaper about her shishou's anti-aging jutsu.

She groaned, pale face falling against the oak table. "Why?"

It didn't help that there was absolutely nobody to help her; Kakashi may have been on to her- not her exact situation, but the fact that she didn't really _belong_- but asking him for help seemed unnecessary and unwise at the time. The medic had a vague notion, however, that she would need his help eventually. Still, Kakashi needed to stay out of her situation for as long as he could.

As a result of her fear of getting him involved, she had avoided him like the plague. She sometimes caught sight of him in the market and would slip through the crowd to put some distance between the two of them. Every so often, when he saw her and started walking in her direction, she would wave back mutely before stepping faster towards her destination as if he wasn't trying to catch up to her. On more than one occasion, she had looked back at him to find him staring at her oddly, his eyebrows creased.

It struck Sakura as ironic that _she _was avoiding _him_. If her memory still served her correctly, during her two years of training under Tsunade, she recalled Kakashi deliberately evading her as she was currently doing to him. In fact, she'd probably at one point shot the silver-haired man the same strange look the current Kakashi had pinned on her. At the time, she'd been seeking his company because Naruto and Sasuke were both gone, and he was her last reminder of Team 7. Except he obviously hadn't shared the same sentiment, Sakura had judged, and after a few months, had tried to shove the man out of her life as easily as he had shoved her out of his by throwing herself into her training and researching.

Much like right now.

"_Why?_" Sakura groaned again against the table.

* * *

He lay on his bed, hands folded on his chest, staring at the ceiling and going over techniques and strategies in his mind to wile away the time.

With all his teammates gone, Kakashi was left to figure out how to allocate the hours he had. When he wasn't laying in bed, he was out with Genma and his group. Much to his ire, he'd been given time away from missions so that he could "mourn," but there was nothing he wanted more than to be _out_ of Konoha at the moment. Everywhere he turned was an unpleasant reminder of his lone survival.

And visiting the hospital was out of question. He'd recently found that anytime he walked into the facility, the white walls began closing in around him, as if trying to swallow _him _up, too- as if half of his friends hadn't been enough. Not to mention Sakura was there, and his slight interest in her was shadowed greatly by the disturbing anomaly he found her to be. To boot, the pinkette seemed to be avoiding him. He furrowed his eyebrows at the fleeting thought before forcing it out of his mind.

So yes. Laying in bed contemplating how to create a new jutsu and hanging out with Genma were really his only options.

Kakashi sat up quickly when he heard someone rapping at his window, climbing off his bed and pulling the window up. Genma squatted on his haunches, a stir-stick hanging out of the corner of his mouth.

"We're going to Ichiraku. Wanna come?"

The 15-year-old swung swiftly out of his window, leaving it open. He had nothing to steal, as his room was completely empty save for a photo of his team- which he wasn't even sure he wanted. He had never pegged himself as the sentimental sort, but it had become extremely painful to look at the photo lately.

Shizune and Anko were spinning around on their stools, laughing about whatever gossip they had just finished discussing, and Gai was staring at them starry-eyed, probably admiring their youth. Kakashi slid into the last available stool, leaning against the wall and watching the crew.

The entire market was alight with activity, drowning out their own chatter. Vendors were shouting out their prices and families were browsing the streets, eager children tugging on the hems of their parents clothing to drag them to the nearest toy store. Nobody could have guessed that only a few months ago, the village had been mourning the loss of a Hokage and several elite ninja.

Speaking of elite ninja, Kakashi couldn't help but to notice somebody in the distance boasting loudly of his accomplishments. He tried to filter out the distracting announcements, but the voice seemed to be getting louder.

"I'm here for important research! Where's the nearest bath house, anybody willing to disclose?" The voice was definitely male, deep and hardy. "I'm gone for a few years and nobody remembers me? I'm a published author, world-renown artist, on my way to fame." There was a pause. "Is "Toad Sage" ringing any bells?" There was a jovial laugh from the voice.

The group of young nins' babble disintegrated into silence as the man towered over them, all eyes looking up. His long white hair drifted in the wind, and as his eyes roved over the crew, they seemed to hone in on Kakashi. His hands were on his hips, and his grin was still wide. "You're Minato's kid, aren't you?"

"Minato's kid" nodded his head warily, setting his chopsticks down. He was certain that this was the loon who had been harping about his artistry no less than 5 minutes ago, and to be addressed directly by him was worrisome. Kakashi had a reputation to uphold, after all.

"I'm Jiraiya. I'm sure you've heard all about me from Minato-"

There was a collective gasp from the people around Kakashi, but he himself had no idea who the man, in his billowing yukata, was. And he said so. "I have no idea who you are. Minato-san never mentioned you."

Jiraiya looked immediately put-out. "I was the overlooking jounin of his team when he was a genin."

Kakashi's eyes widened. Now that the man mentioned it, he remembered his late-sensei bringing up his own teacher, who the blond had claimed was a literary genius. "Actually, Minato-sensei did bring you up once."

"There we go," Jiraiya smiled again, folding his arms against his chest and reclining against the wall behind him.

"Why are you here?" Kakashi said flatly.

The older nin's grin grew wider if possible, and he leaned forward, beckoning the boy close as if to tell him a secret. "For _research_," he said conspiratorially, his before-innocent smile seeming incredibly lecherous now. Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"What does this have anything to do with me?" He retained his uninterested tone.

The Sannin pulled himself away, standing up straight, arms still crossed, a frown on his face. "Who said it had anything to do with you to begin with?" He sounded slightly miffed, as if he didn't appreciate Kakashi's indifference.

"You wouldn't come up to me otherwise." The boy responded coolly, ever the analytic.

"Hm. They said you were a smart one," Jiraiya smirked, relaxing.

"'They'?"

"How about I train you, one-on-one?" The Toad Sage ignored the question, getting to the point.

Kakashi was slightly taken aback at the sudden offer, but he knew that it was what the famed shinobi was actually here for. He was pretty sure Minato must have mentioned him as his genius student some time, and now that the Hokage had passed away, Jiraiya had taken upon himself to further the boy's studies. "Research" was just his excuse to come back to the village surreptitiously- it was obvious the Sage didn't stop by much.

"What do I gain from this?" Jiraiya cocked an eyebrow at the brash query, but the man couldn't read Kakashi's masked face.

As if reading the Sage's mind, Genma hissed at Kakashi. "Are you _nuts?_ He's one of the _Sannin! _Do you even know who they are?!" The addressed boy shot a dirty look at the brown-haired, senbon-wielder. Of course he _knew_, but he was certain he could quickly surpass the Sannin's skills on his own, which made his tutelage invalid. So, logic followed that he needed to gain something more from the experience- he wasn't going to waste either of their time.

Jiraiya caught onto the calculating gleam in the genius' eye, a sly smile crawling onto his face. "Just let me train you. I'll reward you after." He ruffled the silver hair patronizingly. Kakashi frowned.

As the masked-nin had predicted, he easily surpassed the Sage within months. At one point, Sakura had passed by the training ground. When Kakashi called out to her, she looked as if she'd been caught red-handed before laughing nervously and scuttling away, sparing a sideways glance at the white-haired man with him. She seemed to recognize him, but didn't stop to acknowledge him in any way.

"Pretty girl," Jiraiya had said after she left. There was a beat. "Does she visit the bath house?" Kakashi gave him a nasty look before walking off into the training ground forest to practice chakra control. Needless to say, he was now more than familiar with the nin's perverted habits- and though he _did _agree that there was something exotic about Sakura's features, and that her lithe figure was rather attractive (she was frequently a conversation-starter among his male friends, which he found somewhat disturbing. Females seemed to come up a lot more now that they were all pubescent), he would never stoop down to the old pervert's level.

Despite the addictions of the old man (who wasn't really that old), Kakashi found that he certainly respected the man. He was definitely powerful, yet still had compassion and a (sometimes misplaced) love for people. The man reminded him of his old teammate in a way, and when he thought too long about it, there was an uncomfortable ache in his chest. He shook it off.

"I'm leaving this month," the white-haired nin was sitting under the shade of a large oak tree. His eyes were closed, and Kakashi wasn't quite sure if he'd imagined the voice. But Jiraiya's eye opened, and he looked seriously at the young jounin.

"When are you coming back?" Kakashi asked, trying not to seem too eager. Truth was, he'd gotten quite attached, a feeling he wasn't use to. Before Obito, he'd never been particularly fond of anybody, but the Uchiha's last moments had changed Kakashi. He had first noticed when he found himself purposely seeking out Sakura's company.

"I'll be back eventually," Jiraiya gave a toothy grin. When Kakashi nodded, the Sage began to rummage through his pockets. He pulled out a small book. "I promised you a reward after these months, so here it is. I've autographed it, and it has a few coloured pages in the back. It's the special, platinum, limited edition. There are only 3 others on the planet."

"Platinum edition?" Kakashi inquired, taking the book and examining the cover closely. He had caught glimpses of this book in the windows of book stores _and _adult stores, which he thought sent quite mixed messages.

"Usually the publishers just copy pages to produce books, but these are drawn by hand. No 4 copies are the same."

He flipped open to a random page, scanning over the text. His eyes widened gradually at the graphic images and descriptions, before he slammed the book shut hastily. "Am I allowed to be reading this?" Kakashi croaked.

Jiraiya laughed, clapping the silver-haired nin on the back. "Kid, you're allowed to read whatever you want."

Kakashi flushed, flipping the pages of the book over and over again nervously. He was pretty sure the book would sit and rot on his coffee table in his apartment. There was no way he'd read this in public!

"You're welcome," Jiraiya said cheekily.

When Kakashi woke up the next day, the man had left the village without leaving a trace of evidence that he had ever been there- except for the small hole in the wooden fence of the bath house. Shaking off the settling feeling of discontent, the boy made his way to the ramen shop.

He'd been in line for five minutes before remembering that he hadn't taken the book out of his pocket like he'd intended to. And honestly, Kakashi had gone over his techniques so often that he knew them better than the back of his own hand... so it was only natural to take the book out and read it, right? It would be something new and fresh. What harm could it do, really?

So he pulled out the little mustard-coloured novel, hiding it from the view of outsider's so that nobody might recognize it. And he denied that his actions had anything to do with interest. Because he was not even remotely interested.

But the next day, as he walked around the central market browsing to stock up on his kunai supply, he found himself bored and wanting. So he pulled out the book, and admitted that perhaps he was mildly obsessed- but only _mildly_.

And the next week, while he was rereading it for the 6th time, he pulled it out in the middle of a spar with Asuma- and still beat the nin.

"Is that _Icha, Icha Paradise_?" The teen questioned, looking at Kakashi calmly. The trench-knife wielder had recently taken up smoking, and a cigarette dangled from between his lips.

Kakashi nodded.

Asuma was quiet before speaking up. "Wanna go to Yakiniku Q?"

Kakashi nodded again, falling into step beside the boy without taking his eyes off the text for even a second.

* * *

She was reading a text borrowed from the library when there was a knock on her door. Startled, she dog-eared the page, pulling herself out of the sagging cushions of her couch. When she opened the door, Kakashi was standing there, looking straight into her eyes. _He's certainly grown_, Sakura commented to herself. The last time she'd seen him was at the training ground, and he'd been too far away for her to properly judge his height. On the other hand, she'd also been too shocked at seeing Jiraiya to even really notice Kakashi- the old pervert had been rather handsome when he was younger.

"Would you like to come in?"

He smiled, by-stepping her. Sakura rolled her eyes while lightly shaking her head, but she couldn't deny her own small, happy smile lighting up her face. She followed him into the kitchen, turning the stove on to boil some hot water. The kettle began whistling.

"I haven't seen you in a while," Sakura said as nondescriptly as she could manage. The truth was, she had missed him. After all, he was really her only company in this era. "You don't stop by the hospital anymore. Not even for your mandatory after-mission exams." She eyed him critically over her cup of tea.

He shrugged, avoiding her eyes. "I can't stand that antiseptic smell. Gives me a headache."

But she knew better. Ever since the Kyuubi had attacked, Kakashi had begun avoiding the medical center. She knew it had nothing to do with the smell and everything to do with the deaths littering the hospital records. As far as Kakashi was concerned, the hospital was where shinobi went to die. It struck her as odd that his paranoia was only now settling in. She frowned slightly.

"You do know you'll be kicked off the roster if you don't get checked up." Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly again, and Sakura huffed. "Missions are your only source of income."

"Money is the least of my worries."

At first this surprised the medic,but when she thought about the piles of limited edition _Icha, Icha _books her sensei had, she smiled wryly. _I should have known_. The price on his collection alone was probably over thousands.

_Speak of the devil_, Sakura thought acidly when Kakashi pulled out a small yellow book with the signature red prohibited sign on the front. "Did Jiraiya give that to you?"

He nodded, eyes never leaving the page. Her own forest green pools narrowed, trying to burn a hole through the hard cover. Kakashi seemed to notice, as he slid the book below eye level and his eye creased at her. "Something bothering you?"

Sakura huffed. "You're actually the most infuriating person I've ever met, do you know that?" That was true, through and through, regardless of the century she lived in. "Why are you here?"

All fooling around aside, Kakashi set the book down. "I was wondering if you could just do the check up here."

Sighing, the medic tapped her pointer finger against the table. She should've known. "Fine, but on one condition." The boy raised his eyebrow. "Don't open _that_ book in my house," she deadpanned. Kakashi's shoulders dropped.

"Alright."

Sakura grinned. The fantastic feeling of beating Kakashi around still hadn't worn off.

Moving into the small living room, she'd left to grab gloves from her bathroom as Kakashi pulled his shirt off. But when she came back, he still had his shirt, and thus his mask, on.

"Have you forgotten the procedures already?" She arched her own pink eyebrow.

The silver-haired teen looked momentarily uncomfortable. "It's just... weird."

Both her eyebrows flew up. Had he developed the usual signs of teen-dom? Chest hair? Acne? Then it occurred to her. _HIS MASK! _Something giddy lit up in Sakura, and she couldn't help the laughter bubbling up. She should've known puberty would have girls squealing all over the male in front of her, and if she was any good at her job, the boys probably brought up girls in their talks more than ever before. Kakashi looked at her sorely, reading her mind.

"I just keep it on now. I've figured out how to eat and drink without taking it off for a very long time. Nobody can ever tell it was off."

"Poor Kakashi," Sakura cooed, smirking at him. "Overrun by females!" He glowered at her. "C'mon, I won't stare. I'm older than those girls." Her laughter died down and she looked at him expectantly.

"I don't know, Sakura, some of them are pretty old," he mumbled before begrudgingly pulling his black shirt over his head.

The pinkette was mildly surprised-well, that was putting it lightly- at the sight before her. He'd definitely developed, and she blushed a little. He still had traces of his awkward teenage-lank, but she could see the muscles developing. Another year or two and he'd be full-grown. She could feel the heat traveling up her face at the thought of what her ex-sensei looked under his vest. _Oh geez. Stop that right now, Sakura_.

It wasn't that she was _attracted _to the- boy? Guy? Man? Male?- in front of her, but any functioning female who _didn't _get a little flustered at the sight of Kakashi was probably asexual.

"Thought you said you wouldn't stare, Sakura," She could hear the smugness in his voice, and sure enough, when she looked up at him quickly, he was all lopsided smiles with dimples and boyish-charm. She swore her head was on fire.

"You should be a little more modest," she groused, being unnecessarily rough as she prodded his chest with her fingers to make sure he didn't have any hidden bruises. "You might be good-looking, but you're too cocky. Girls don't like that," _Great, now I'm giving him girl-advice. _She all but slammed the stethoscope against his chest.

"Good-looking? You flatter me, Sakura-chan," he quipped, tacking on an honorific to screw with her and still smiling his annoying smile.

She looked at him funny. It crossed her mind that perhaps Kakashi really _didn't _realize he was more attractive than any normal male. And if she was correct, he would only become even more good-looking. Shaking her head, she continued with the exam.

"What are all the books for?"

Sakura stiffened so much that even her pink locks stood on end. She looked like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"Just research," she replied casually, not meeting his mismatched gaze.

"What are you researching?" He seemed to notice her discomfort.

"A medical jutsu," she replied vaguely, pulling the gloves off and disposing of them. Her answer wasn't exactly a lie. Smoothly, she brought his attention away from her books. "You're fine. I heard you're going on a month-long mission, so don't forget to visit before _and _after," her green eyes looked at him pointedly.

Kakashi tugged his shirt back on, mask slipping back in place. "Sure," and with a wave, poofed out.

Sakura breathed out a sigh of relief. She had avoided revealing anything to him. How much longer would she have to play this game?

* * *

a/n: Why was this chapter so hard to write. LOL. It turned out significantly shorter than the others... hahahahahaha /nervous laughter

I know it was pretty chopped up, so I apologize. I generally try to get the events to flow into one another, but I decided that this would be a chapter with both of their POVs, and since Sakura and Kakashi don't interact much this chapter, I had to split it up a ton. Not to mention, most of this chapter is Kakashi. Sakura was really just... researching and working. LOL!


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5- Sakura, 20; Kakashi, 16_

She was pretty sure she'd read through half of the nonfiction section of the library.

_No_. She was _positive _she'd read through _more _than half of the nonfiction section.

Flipping quickly through her current text, Sakura worried her bottom lip, eyebrows creased in intense concentration. The only helpful information she'd found so far was an outdated (at least 150 years ago), small tidbit about a man named _Tsuki Tahakashi_, who'd invented a time-traveling jutsu... and who looked remarkably like the guy who'd pulled her into this whole fiasco, except disturbingly sleep-lacking and depressed. Unfortunately, the tiny blurb- which seemed to be an _obituary_ of some sort- only mentioned his accolades. Sakura was certain that it was him, and had been searching diligently for the past month about him.

But to no avail. And as a result, Sakura holed herself up in her house for extended periods of time, mourning the complexity of her situation. Every so often, Kakashi would drop by, cutting her moping short- but a welcome interruption, Sakura decided.

Not as if her decision had anything to do with the jounin's development, she would reassure herself. In her eyes, Kakashi would _always _be either her distant, placid sensei, or the young boy she'd dropped in on a few years prior. At least, that was what she kept telling herself.

And that was also her train of thought as she stared at Kakashi's bare face. He was going on about some guy in green who had been eyeing him for a while, but all Sakura seemed to register was the unfamiliar animation of the lower half of his visage. Sure, she remembered Ayame's infatuated reaction to seeing below Hatake Kakashi's mask, but this... _this was something else entirely! _

His teeth were straight and white, but not unnaturally white; she really shouldn't have been so surprised- Kakashi didn't seem like he would eat anything that would stain his teeth... but then again, Kakashi didn't seem like he ate anything, because eating with a mask was nothing if not inconvenient. It was so bizarre for her to finally see his pearly whites clicking together with each hard syllable and his thin lips meeting at each 'm' and 'n.'

It was as if adolescence was a race and Kakashi had sped to first place. He'd started unnaturally early, and while every other boy was finally catching up to the girls in height, Kakashi was minding his own business, turning heads. His face was no longer childishly round but defined enough for him to not appear feminine or boyish. And his _voice_. It had smoothed out and dropped since she had met him, becoming mellow and authoritative. He was turning into the porn-reading, Team 7 leader she was familiar with before her very eyes.

She started a little when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Kakashi was standing in front of her, stooped so that he was eye level with her. Although his eyebrows were creased in concern, he was struggling to fight the smirk off his lips and something akin to mischief was lighting up his grey eyes. Sakura blushed, swatting his hand off her shoulder.

"A picture _does _last longer, Sakura-_chan_," he commented as he settled back onto the floor, leaning back into his palms. He was no longer smothering the smirk, displaying it shamelessly.

"Shut up, jerk," Sakura muttered under her breath, abandoning his presence to make herself a comforting cup of tea. Much to her chagrin, Kakashi followed.

"I'm not that easy to shake-off, Sakura," he sing-songed, swinging over her countertop so his legs dangled off the edge.

"Watch me try," she bit back, eyes sparking.

"In fact," he continued, ignoring her jibe. "I'd say you actually _enjoy _having me around."

Sakura shot him a withering glare, only to have her heart stop in her throat. She'd seen Kakashi smile plenty of times, but without his mask on, his usual eye-crease was completely disarming.

"Remember what I said about pictures, Sakura?" Kakashi said just as the kettle began to whistle, breaking the pink-haired nin out of her reverie. "You really should try it."

_I'm so screwed_, Sakura groaned to herself.

* * *

"_I CHALLENGE YOU, HATAKE KAKASHI, TO A DUEL!_" The man in green had enthused, light in his eyes, green spandex stretching fluidly to fit his extreme gesturing.

Kakashi leaned away as Gai swung a finger in front of his nose, his eyebrows rising skeptically. He had a feeling that he would never be able to take this guy seriously.

"Whoever finishes 500 laps around the village, over the mountain, on their hands-" he announced this as if it was the most normal thing on earth "-will be declared winner!" And without a seconds pause, flipped onto his palms and sped down the dirt road.

His opponent, silver hairs almost clear in the setting sunlight, exhaled tiredly, unfazed by the cloud of dust the green beast with thick eyebrows had left in his wake. Kakashi wasn't quite sure how he'd even met the guy; one minute he had been sitting in the shade of one of the oaks on the training grounds, reading the newest release of _Icha, Icha_, and then _he_ had popped out of the branches, startling Kakashi (which was a feat in itself, as Kakashi wasn't easily surprised).

Now he was standing here, contemplating whether to indulge this... _acquaintance? Rival? Annoyance? _500 laps wasn't short, and really, Kakashi just wanted to sit and read _Icha, Icha_.

_Oh well_, he rolled onto his hands, feet high in the air. _I can still read this way, it's just a bit more troublesome._

And, he admitted subconsciously, it gave him time to analyze his current relationship with Sakura. His recent attention to anything pink had certainly perplexed him.

500 laps passed more quickly than he'd bargained- he must have lapped the guy in green at least five times. It was 5 in the afternoon, 7 hours after they'd started, and Kakashi had only just begun going over the implications of being interested in an older woman before he heard a despaired cry in the distance... as if his opponent had an intuitive sense that he'd lost. Without a second thought, the silver-haired nin flipped back onto his feet, pulled out his book, and made his way to the bench outside the hospital.

An hour later, Sakura emerged from the automatic, sliding doors, a large tote bag slung over her shoulder and looking seriously disheveled. Her usual day-to-day sandals were replaced by combat sandals, as if she wasn't planning on going straight home but to the training grounds. Kakashi's ears perked.

"Not going home?" The pinkette nearly jumped out of her skin, dropping the bag in the process. Several books and newspapers tumbled out, and Sakura fell to her knees to sweep them hastily into the bag. Kakashi cocked an eyebrow at her alarmingly disjointed movements, squatting to help her with her belongings.

"Thought I'd sweat out some pent-up frustrations first," she said offhandedly as they fell into step. Kakashi didn't fail to notice the protective way she hugged her canvas bag.

"Mind if I join?"

The corners of her mouth twitched into a small smile. "Not at all. Just don't go easy on me."

"Never," he replied, smiling crookedly, only to see that Sakura had disappeared, leaving only a cloud of dust.

Three hours later, they fell side by side, chests heaving with each panting breath.

"I'm not sure I can make it home," Sakura croaked, managing a weak smile. "I can't feel anything in my body."

"Guess I'll just have to carry you," Kakashi joked, willing his body to reach a comfortable equilibrium where he wasn't breathing so hard.

Something about Kakashi's little joke quieted Sakura. The Kakashi she knew and was used to would never had said something so comfortable to her. It was almost as if they were actually _friends_- not just _comrades_.

Apparently, her strange silence was scaring the male in question. "You good?" He nudged her in the side, probably to make sure she wasn't dead.

But it only fueled the trip down the rabbit hole that Sakura was experiencing. Was this _really _Kakashi? Had he ever been like this? So at ease with anybody? Such a... _teenager_? So what had happened to make him the way he was in her time? She'd seen everything there was to see. He'd lost his parents, he'd lost his teammates. He had good friends, he had enemies. But here he was, joking like any kid, living like any human. Why was the Kakashi she knew so stoic? Were they even the same person? Suddenly, she wasn't sure if the Kakashi she was sitting beside right now had anything to do with the Kakashi she knew way back when, because _this _Kakashi was frighteningly out of character.

"Hello? How are you?" Kakashi's shadow loomed over her, breaking Sakura out of her reverie. He was staring into her eyes worriedly, but the expression cleared when she blinked owlishly. He exhaled with relief. "I was worried there for a second. I thought I really would have to carry you home." Satisfied that she was ok, he leaned back into his palms, gazing at the sky.

Sakura pulled herself up, too, and his eyes immediately darted to her. He was smiling loosely. "Yes?" She asked timidly, suddenly self-conscious.

"Nothing. Just admiring the view."

Heat travelled up her face. "Oh- uh- it is pretty, I guess," she mumbled, glancing tepidly at the melting sun. His smile grew and his pools of slate creased.

"You're probably going to need a seamstress for that," he remarked, pointing below her head before poofing away. Confused, Sakura looked in the general direction of his gesture, finally understanding his cheeky double-entendre and shrieking at the large tear that began mid-rib and ripped across her stomach and thighs.

"_KAKASHI_!" She yelled into the night. No, this was definitely the perverted man she knew.

* * *

Her research was making slow progress; every so often she found something that seemed important, only to later have something contradictory show up. And when she created her own theories, they were easily debunked by something she read only minutes later. So in a way, brushing up on her skills was her way of letting off steam, because Hokage knows how much of _that _she had built up over the years.

Outside of the hospital, Sakura had started spending a lot of time with Kakashi. He seemed to deliberately be keeping her in his company- it almost seemed like he was _following _her. And right now, he was trailing her to the training ground.

"Am I getting too old for you?" His tone was light and teasing, but Sakura spluttered at his comment.

"What!"

"Well, you _did _tolerate me a lot more when I was 13," he was still joking around, she could tell by his single showing eye. "Don't tell me you're into... _younger_ men, Sakura-_chan_?" Kakashi's tone was suggestive, and Sakura shuddered violently.

"You're the one who stopped coming to the hospital!" Her pink hair seemed wilder than usual, and her eyes, livelier. _Of course_ she had interacted with him more back then- he'd been suffering emotional trauma and eye wounds and psychological damage and and and _and_-

"You could have easily sought me out, Sakura-chan," although he was still messing with her, his tone had taken on a teacher-ish vibe. He seemed to be pleasantly observing her gradually reddening complexion at his pseudo-lecture.

With alarm, she retorted. "How much I talk to you has nothing to do with your age," Oh, but it had everything to do with it, and she knew that.

Because as much as she hated to admit it, Kakashi was right. She could _easily _have met up with him herself, but she'd been very... _afraid_. Afraid of the feelings the ninja had evoked from her recently. She could no longer deny the butterflies and the blundering mess he turned her into, point being made in their current conversation. What worried her even more was how she _knew _Kakashi- he was not only four years _younger _than her, which normally really wouldn't be _that_ big of a deal, but that she'd watched him grow from an asexual, lanky 13-year-old into... into _this! _All rippling muscles and deep voice and _tall _and oh jeez just the thought made her flush. How had she not noticed this in her team leader?!

She'd seen him at his worst and at his best, and his worst had been _bad_. She'd seen him 12 years from now, and _that _was an experience in itself. And she found that what she could push away as _affection_ when Kakashi was 13 was bubbling back up as _attraction _now that he was 16, and to say she felt a _little _weird about it was the understatement of the century. So it was normal for her to avoid the male- until he made it clear that he would not be avoided.

This was all just so _frustrating! _Having to figure out how to get out of this time-jutsu was one thing, but whatever this was that she felt for Hatake Kakashi? She hadn't counted on that. With a growl, she stalked away from the subject of her worry, pounding a fist into a tree and sending it flying.

* * *

One afternoon, after a particularly stressful shift at the hospital dealing with high-maintenance patients, she'd been busy kicking up dirt and falling trees in her wrath when Kakashi suddenly appeared.

"You know one tree takes thousands of years to grow, Sakura-chan?"

_What I'd do to wipe that smile off his face_, Sakura grumbled to herself. Brushing her hands, she shrugged. "They're easily replaced."

She didn't feel like fussing with Kakashi. She hadn't even seen him for months, and now he suddenly popped up. The medic had given up on ignoring him after his unannounced house-visit last year, as he'd made it a point to be a pest. Yet for all his pestering, he had suddenly disappeared mid-July. It was now November, with all its biting, cold winds and frequent flurries.

"Aren't you hot?" He asked out of the blue.

She looked at him through her bangs, which were clinging together in strands of sticky sweat despite the barren, icy trees. "No, I'm not," she replied sarcastically. "I'm sweating buckets because it's freezing. I'm surprised you're not burning up just because of all that black-" Abruptly, she stopped mid sentence, blinking owlishly. That wasn't his normal outfit. That was- _that was ANBU gear! _The words caught in her mouth, and she gaped like a fish. What seemed to be a wide grin split Kakashi's face.

She stumbled over her words for a minute, wide viridian eyes roving his face for an explanation, but all she could splutter out was a bewildered _whatwhyhowwhen?_

"Quite a few people suggested it to me. I even had a few upper-ranks telling me they wouldn't mind recommending me. I guess I decided to take them up on the offer. It was about time I put my skills to use, don't you think?"

The way he said all this threw Sakura off. He'd lost his cocky vibe and something more humble had replaced it. Had months of ANBU-training put the genius nin in his place?

_Humility isn't the only good ANBU training has done him_... Sakura thought meekly, eyes drifting down his body. Could she help it? Something about all the black was so sleek, not to mention the fit of the uniform itself. Every muscle in his body flexed as he shifted his weight from side to side; she hadn't failed to notice the solid, new mass he'd put on and she felt her skin rise as a tremor ran down her spine. _Stop it, Sakura! _She berated herself_,_ but when she finally did tear her eyes away, she only met the self-satisfied smile of her companion.

"Like what you see?" He pulled his mask down from the side of his head. Sakura examined the grinning dog's face, painted on with bright stripes of red and black against a shockingly white background.

Something about all the red against white made her heart tighten, and she clenched a fist to her chest. "Be careful," she murmured, looking away from him.

She heard him snap his mask back into place, starting slightly when she felt a finger lift her chin. Her eyes met his inexplicably soft gaze, and she felt strangely at home.

"I will be," he soothed. It was just like old times, when Kakashi lead her through tough times. In this single moment, she no longer felt older than this man in front of her. "It takes a lot to kill me."

* * *

_Sakura, 21; Kakashi, 17_

There was a lot of... spunk? Was that the right word? In Sakura's fighting today. Each punch seemed to carry more enthusiasm than the one before, and each kick had a renewed vigor. It was three against one, but none of the males on his team could even come close to her today. And her _eyes_...

She was on top of the world. And the way she was looking at him discomfited him.

* * *

_Time for a change? Wonder man finds cure to stop lethal poisoning._

How often had she skipped over this article because the title hadn't _explicitly_ mentioned anything about time jumping? In her day and age, there were simple cures for lethal poisoning, no time travel necessary- it hadn't occurred to her that before this revolutionary era, lethal poisoning was a serious, serious issue.

_Tsuki Takahashi, 29, stepped into the international medical center two weeks ago with a solution to the ongoing poison dilemma. The Council, usually overrun with requests to approve medical jutsus and slow to respond, took up Takahashi's offer immediately._

And the more Sakura pieced together what she knew, it only made more and more sense. The modern day method to curing any and all poisons hadn't come about until much later than Takahashi. Not to mention that the Council had been discontinued several years before her own birth due to several scandals. Tsunade had mentioned fleetingly once, during Sakura's training, that when she'd walked up to the Council, they had easily abdicated- the pinkette had found _that _article a while ago.

"_The method itself is quite simple," Takahashi explained during his interview with the Council. "It's the results that require forethought."_

_But it seems the Council isn't overly concerned with said "results," as they okay-ed the examination in a record time of two weeks. Akio Arakaki, head of the Council, wrote in the declaration that "this jutsu will go above and beyond curing poisoning- it will act as a panacea."_

_However, the general public doesn't seem to be quite as eager as the Council to accept this "cure-all." Local forums have sprung up throughout various villages, debating the ethical stance of such a discovery. _

"_It's natural to worry about spinning timelines out of whack. I've even worried about it, in fact, it's something I still worry about... especially now that it's been approved." Takahashi's research observations clearly dictate his worry. "But I've gone over every minute detail, and I'm positive I've covered all possible outcomes. The jutsu compensates for drastic changes. For instance, if a shinobi travels back in time and stops whatever instrument of death was used, once he arrives again in present-day his comrade will be healed, albeit how, I'm not sure."_

_This explanation has stirred up much controversay. "Why should we use something so potentially dangerous?" Many families have commented. _

_As for senior council member Kaito Nakamura, his only comment was, "what other choice have we right now?" It seems the question of whether or not to implicate such a risky maneuver is to be determined by each gakure's head._

Something in Sakura's brain clicked, and she pulled out her borrowed copy of _Medical Miracles_. She peeled the thin pages apart, finding herself in the middle. Her eyes scanned quickly down the row of names, each one followed by a _poisoned _or _deadly injury_, yet the end of the section summarized in only a few sentences, that each prisoner's wound was completely healed the next day, with no recollection of how or why.

The medic-nin slumped against the back of her seat, hands to her mouth. _This is it. Oh my gosh. This is it. _The only possible explanation was that each dying shinobi's partner had travelled back, changed the circumstance, and returned. Except... nobody knew _what _had happened. Nobody... _remembered_.

There was a knock at her door. "Sakura? The guys are going out to train. Want to come?"

At the sound of his voice, Sakura sat straight up. "Just the guy I wanted to see," she spoke quietly, an idea forming in her head. Kakashi wouldn't mind if _she _took drastic measures with _him_...

"Oh, I'll definitely be out in a minute. And when we're done, I'll treat _everybody _to drinks!"

* * *

He noticed the female of the group lagging behind with a pep to her step. Her eyes were to the stars and she was _humming_. Sakura _never _hummed. He slowed his stride until he stood by her side. "You're in a good mood."

Her head snapped in his direction. "Oh, you'd be in a good mood too if you'd found what I've found."

"Oh? And what have you found?"

"A solution to all my problems," she smiled at him before turning her head back up to the sky.

This piqued his interest. "What does this solution entail?"

She looked at him sideways. "You don't even know what my problem is."

"I'm sure you have many," he said smartly, dodging the kick she sent to his shins. "I'm kidding, Sakura, kidding. You know you can tell me anything." When he looked down at her, she was staring at him keenly. She no longer seemed quite as ecstatic; something in the light of her irises told him that she was wrestling with something.

He stopped briefly when Sakura reached for his arm, certain she was going to hook hers through his. He was mildly disappointed when she hesitated and settled for patting his forearm instead. "I'd really miss you if I didn't know you."

Her bizarre and cryptic remark followed him throughout the night, and their interaction seemed to be affecting Sakura as well. She was a tick less exuberant in the bar, and her eyes would never meet his.

They said nothing as he walked her home, only breathed quietly and watched each exhale come out white. When they got to her apartment door, she finally faced him. Her back was to the door and she was looking at him with an unreadable expression.

He finally cut the silence. "How are you?"

"Good," she replied back breathily. She seemed surprised at the sound of her own voice and blushed furiously. Quickly, she pulled her keys out and fumbled with them. "Sorry, I'm just so _weird _when I'm buzzed, you don't even know-"

"It's... cute."

She froze, turning her head. "Excuse me?"

It was his turn to blush (he was so glad he wore a mask). "You're fine, Sakura." She shot him a funny look. "That came out wrong- what I meant was-" He let out a breathe of exasperation. "You're great. I'm glad we're friends." His lone eye was staring lamely at the ceiling.

"_Just _friends?" Sakura wheedled, smiling a bit. He shot her a quizzical look.

"What are you saying?"

"Kakashi," in this split second, various thoughts and apprehensions ran through her head. _I'm _older _than him. This could ruin our friendship. Wait, we won't be friends anymore because I'll go back to my time. Oh wow, how did I only just think of that. I'll lose him. I'll lose him either way. What if it doesn't work? Do I even care if it works anymore? If it doesn't work and we become a couple here, what will I tell everybody? If it does work, will I forget this? _"Do you like me?"

"Of course I do," he was still looking at her funny. "Are you ok?"

"Noooo," she groaned covering her face. "Do you _like _like me? Oh jeez, I sound so juvenile. Forget it, I didn't say anything-"

"No, no, keep going." He was grinning ear to ear, clearly amused.

"Oh shut up, you- you- _trollop!_"

"_Trollop? _That's the most interesting thing anybody has ever called me. Though I'm positive that it's usually a name reserved for females."

"Jeez, I'm going home," Sakura groaned again in mortification, shoving her key desperately into the lock. Before she could spin it, Kakashi stopped her. His hand was warm. And big. Her heartbeat jumped up several paces from a comfortable largo to an alarming presto.

"Sakura." She swallowed. "Sakura, look at me."

Tugging her hand out of his, she pressed herself as tightly to her door as she could, folding her hands and looking two inches above his shoulder.

"You're not looking at me," his voice was soft. Slowly, she met his gaze. He had pulled up his hitae-ate. "Good." Normally she would have bristled at being treated like a dog, but she was so nervous and he started speaking, his tone reminding her of his lectures from when she was a genin. "I think it's rather obvious how I feel about you." He looked at her, waiting for a response.

All Sakura could choke out was a high "oh?"

"I _like _like you."

She didn't know whether to feel embarrassed at his wording (and his slightly self-contented smile) or to faint at the implications of his statement.

"I think the question _here_... is whether _you_ like _me_, Sakura."

Suddenly, she noticed that he was towering over her with one arm leaning above her head and the other hand stroking soothing circles on the back of her hand, which she'd unknowingly relinquished to him. His face was so close to hers- his mask was down!- that she held her breath. He was smiling pleasantly down at her. Was she being seduced?! Where had he learned this?

"I-I'm old," she squeaked out in a strangled voice, flinching at his bark of laughter.

"21 isn't old, Sakura."

"Older than you!"

"Does it really matter when you have the life we do?" He returned quietly. She knew he meant the life of a shinobi.

"I-I guess not."

"I'm glad we agree."

The hand that had been holding her hand moved to her face, and his thumb ran along her bottom lip. His eyes traced its movement attentively. "I'm going to kiss you now," his voice was rough, and Sakura's toes curled.

And then, it occurred to her, that a kiss was exactly what she needed. With a start and a gasp, she pushed him away. He stood up straight, blinking rapidly in confusion. "I'm so sorry. It's not that I don't want to. I'd _really _like to. I'm just... not ready," she cringed at her own choice of words.

He seemed out of it for a second or two before nodding slowly.

"Are you angry?" She asked, biting her bottom lip.

"Sakura," he chuckled, opening the door for her. "I wouldn't be angry at you over this."

"Thank you," she said tacitly, turning and waving goodbye to him. He saluted her with two fingers before poofing off her doorstep.

Sakura stumbled through her bedroom door and fell onto her thick comforters. The window was open, her curtains billowing in the bright moonlight and leaving the room chilly. Why had she stopped? Just a kiss, and she knew, just _knew, _that it would have fixed everything. _Everything!_

But she'd stopped him. _I'm an idiot! An idiot!_

No. Not stupid. Just... afraid.

Afraid to lose what she'd gained. Afraid to step back into _her _Konoha and lose _this _Kakashi, who made mistakes in front of her and fumbled over his words and smiled with and at her and made time for her and was genuinely eager to spend time with her and... and... how could she go back to the detached and impersonal _team leader _instead of her _friend? _

She was so afraid of not knowinghim, after all these _years_ of _knowing _him. Her fists curled against the covers as she stared at the ceiling, willing the tears to stay locked behind her eyes. She hadn't been lying when she'd told him she wasn't ready. She wasn't sure if she'd _ever_ be ready to lose him.

_I'd really miss you if I didn't know you._

* * *

a/n: EGADS! (Yeah. I know. Nobody says that) THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS, GUYS! I might not always reply, but I'm fo sho reading them and they fill me with hapapppiiinnneessssssss!

Sorry for the super long wait, oh man, I can't even express how apologetic I am... I just slacked off with this chapter cause it was so difficult to write and then before I knew it BAM SUMMER IS ALMOST OVER I HAVE TO GO TO MY COLLEGE ORIENTATION GAAAAHHHH what's even worse is that I've been meaning for this to be my last fanfic but an old idea I got midsummer came to life the minutes before I was going to fall asleep (don't you hate how that happens?), and now I'm seriously debating starting it up. Except I won't be able to update frequently because I'll be in colelg ejHNISDFUH&(#*&P ok anyways I'm chill

And laassttllyyyy you might have received a previous alert for this chapter, SORRY! I took it down to add another year. I've included two years within this chapter because each one was kind of uneventful and short.


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6- Sakura, 22; Kakashi, 18_

She should be happy- ecstatic, actually- at her recent discovery.

So why was she pouring over every document she could get her hands on and trying to find _loopholes_?

Hadn't she wanted more than anything just to get out of here? But now she fell into fitful bouts of sleep every night, spending every waking minute trying to think of an alternative. She felt like a _crazy_ person, the way her hands flew through the pages of each manual in desperation. There _had _to be an alternative. She couldn't just... forget.

Maybe she should mess around with her 4-year-old self? Meddle with the ninja academy? But the thought of facing her younger self made her blanche.

Slowly, Sakura became entrenched, _obsessed_, with this work. She found herself sneaking peeks at her hidden texts every time Kakashi came over, her attention so consumed that he would frequently wave a hand in front of her face, his eyebrows furrowed in worry. Every evening, she left the hospital in a whirl of panic to get back to finding a solution, plowing past crowds and ignoring any greetings in her direction.

By now, she knew everything there was to know about this time travel shenanigan. She knew how it worked, she knew the kinks and quirks. She knew the principals and she knew the strings attached. She knew that the practice had become extinct to the point that nobody had any idea what it was, yet somehow, here she was. And she knew that somehow, despite the obituary in the papers from decades ago, Tsuki Takahashi had still been alive until she had killed him.

The only thing she didn't know was whether he had ever really died.

* * *

Sakura was reading a research paper on her bed when she heard the window outside her room sliding open. Quickly shoving the papers under her mattress, she eased her heart into a regular pace before stepping into her living room. "You're back! How was the mission?" She smiled amicably up at him, patting the table for him to sit on.

"Apparently I've become quite popular. The price for my head is rather flattering," he hummed. Goosebumps rose on his arms when she pressed the stethoscope to his chest.

"What were you expecting?" Sakura chided, but the curve of her lips gave her away. Her amusement quelled a little at the popping vessels in his Sharingan, but she brushed it aside, glad that it wasn't anything worse.

He continued as Sakura checked his other eye. "I must have picked up at least 30 more jutsus. You think people would be more inconspicuous with their combinations in front of a guy they know copies techniques."

Straightening up, Sakura moved behind him. His next comment was dry and passionless. "That's also what they call me, '_the guy who copies techniques'_." He was obviously less than pleased.

"What would you rather?" The medic-nin quipped, finally sitting next to him. There was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "'Hatake Kakashi, the one-eyed wonder?'" Her teasing was not lost on him, as he glowered in response.

Suddenly, she had an epiphany. "'Copy-nin Kakashi'?" She suggested timidly. His eyes lit up and his lip quirked.

"That has a nice ring to it."

A funny smile graced the medic's features. _Who woulda thunk. _

* * *

His exam had dissolved into a comfortable hangout with Kakashi still sitting on her mahogany coffee table as she balanced herself on the edge of her couch across from her, crossed legs beginning to fall asleep. She was currently recounting to him her pre-genin Konoha history (forgetting that perhaps it wasn't too safe to be telling him something like that). Despite the itching desire to research more, Sakura found herself enjoying their easy conversation.

"-and I was so obsessed with him. I was _crazy_. If you'd known me, you would have been terrified," with a roll of her eyes and a chuckle, she officially finished her monologue that Kakashi had listened through patiently, smiling at all the right places. After a wistful minute, Sakura looked at the man sitting across from her.

Her heart skipped a beat; he was gazing at her with an intense gleam in his eye. Her face coloured, and she looked away. He was still in full ANBU gear, and the moonlight bounced off each silver piece of armor. When Kakashi leaned forward, Sakura's head snapped up and she nearly toppled over at the proximity.

"And then?" he finally asked, his voice sounding unusually like gravel.

"I- uh-" She was so sweetly distracted by the scent of cedar and smoke that was closing in around her. Her back hit the couch, and it occurred to her she had been inching away in an effort to breathe and find her sanity. "He left," she whispered with a quiver in her voice, all too aware that Kakashi was leaning into her. Her eyelids fluttered shut, anticipating something she wanted _so, so _bad but couldn't have-

Couldn't have?

She could feel his breath on her lips, and her eyes shot open. She grabbed his shoulders reflexively, keeping him at arm distance. "I- I can't. I'm sorry." Dropping her hands, she twisted them in her skirt nervously.

He drew away slowly, his face hard and unreadable- but his tone told her everything. "Does this have anything to do with what you've been researching?"

The last time he'd been so cold to her was when they'd first met; the pinkette grit her teeth, getting defensive. "Has stalking always been a hobby, Hatake?" Sakura deliberately answered his question with a question. She was an idiot- how could she have not seen this coming? Kakashi was too observant for his own good.

"Quit dodging the question, _Haruno-san_." Her eyes widened at the use of her last name, which she hadn't told a soul. Of course Kakashi knew- he wasn't called a genius for no reason. In fact, he'd probably figured it out years ago.

As situation-specific as his cool imperative seemed, she knew he was addressing past circumstances, too. But she couldn't explain. It put too much at stake; she didn't need a _second _person meddling with time. It was a dangerous dimension to play with, she had learned.

"Sakura, tell me what's going on. Why won't you tell me?" He was so frustrated, so tired of this game. He ran his hands up his face and through his hair, heaving an exasperated sigh.

"Curiosity killed the cat, Kakashi. Haven't you drowned quite enough of them?" She joked weakly, attempting to lighten the atmosphere with an inside joke. One second she was angry and defensive, the next she was meek and frightened- her emotions were running all over the place and having a party. Kakashi's lip didn't even twitch.

The muscle in his jaw was tense, and when he spoke up, it showed. "Don't think I haven't noticed all the time you invest into those books, Sakura. What could be so important that you'd sacrifice so much of yourself for it?"

The way she stiffened was not lost on him.

"You dropped in- no, _fell out of the sky_, 5 years ago. Your skill rivals that of the Sannin Tsunade's, yet nobody has ever heard of you. And it just so happens that you popped up when I would need you most. I'm entitled to a bit of _curiosity_, aren't I?" He was speaking through his teeth now.

Sakura rose to her feet, stepping away from Kakashi and pushing her bangs back, agitated. "Even if I was _allowed _to explain to you, I wouldn't be able to."

"Try!" He implored with a strained voice, getting to his feet, too.

"I _can't!_" Sakura said back, on the verge of yelling. This was pure agony.

"_Why not?_"

"Because I don't know how!" Her voice was loud even to herself. It was as if she was having an out-of-body experience, this entire situation was so unfamiliar. There wasn't a chance in hell that she would ever have had a fight like this with the Kakashi in her time. "I don't even know where to start!"

"You haven't even tried." He retorted acerbically.

"Why can't you just trust me?" She cried out, looking like she was an inch from giving him a piece of her mind.

He drew back, eyebrows creased deeply and a fire in his eyes. "It's not a matter of _trust_, Sakura."

"_Isn't it?_" Something burned in the pit of her stomach, and it was fueling her venomous attitude. Turning away from him, she ran her hands through her hair, breathing deeply, trying to calm herself. Her exercise failed when her next question came out resentful and petty. "Why is this _such_ a big deal to you?!"

"_Because I don't even know who you are!" _

Her insides turned cold. "_What?_" She breathed, voice breaking.

Suddenly, his voice was deceptively calm and unnervingly stony. "You know everything there is to know about me. I even volunteered the story of my father to you. Yet I know nothing about you- how can I trust you?"

Sakura managed to choke out a fragmented reply. "How can you say that?" When he didn't reply, she clenched her teeth. "Get out. _Get out_."

She didn't watch him go, only listened to the sound of him vanishing.

* * *

_Sakura, 23; Kakashi 19_

For the rest of the year after her row with Kakashi, their relationship had been strained. They both made sure never to be alone in each other's company, and any conversation made was unnatural and trite. She had no idea where he was going for his medical check-ups because he no longer stopped by her house and she never saw him at the hospital.

Sakura had spent many a night alone under her covers, sniffing back tears and snot and wondering how 5 years of what she thought was solid friendship could have been ruined in 5 minutes. And she hoped against hope that the next morning would be the beginning of a day where it would hurt less, only it never did.

These days she found out about Kakashi's going-ons by word of mouth and eavesdropping on the gossiping nurses.

When Sakura found out that Kakashi had requested to be placed on inactive duty for ANBU, she started feeling nervous.

When she found out that he'd been requested to take a position as an overlooking jounin for a team of genin, she was thoroughly alarmed.

When she saw him sitting with a group of three, fresh-from-the-academy genins demanding that they introduce themselves ("What are your hobbies, sensei?" The blonde girl chirped. "I have many," he'd replied curtly), she knew it was time for her to leave.

Except she had nobody to help her.

In the end, she'd buckled down, resolute in going back to her time. Even if Kakashi still hated her, she had to get out of this time period and get back to her Konoha. And perhaps it was for the better that nothing had really developed between the two of them. How she was going to get back, she didn't know, but she would find a way, and soon. She would make it happened.

Sakura was preparing to cut away from this life that she'd had for the past few years. The pinkette had told her landlord earlier in the month that she would be leaving at the end of the month (which gave her a good week to figure out how to find her way back to present-day Konoha). Just a few days ago, she had cleaned out her apartment, her heart breaking into pieces and her eyes welling up with fat tears when she found a few candid photos of Kakashi unmasked that she'd taken a year or two ago, after his snide little remark about a picture lasting longer. Ultimately, she placed them into a shoebox and shoved them in a corner. She had just resigned from the hospital and was currently on her way home, passing through the market to pick up some groceries.

She'd been browsing leisurely through the varieties of mango when there was a shout down the street and suddenly the entire street was buzzing with activity. Cocking her head, Sakura stepped out from under the canopy, looking for the ruckus. One of the entrance guards was sprinting down the street, shouting at the top of his lungs. Her interest turned into cold dread at his words.

"_IF A MEDIC DOESN'T GET TO THE GATES RIGHT NOW, HE'LL DIE!_" And as vague as his statement was, the girl somehow knew exactly who he was talking about. As she raced to the entrance, dropping everything she had, she could feel her heartbeat in her throat and the blood roaring in her ears.

"Don't touch him!" Sakura yelled, shoving recklessly through the crowd and falling to her knees beside him on the cobblestone, finally getting a good look at his condition. "Don't move him. He's losing too much blood, moving him will make it worse. We have to operate here. What happened?!"

"ANBU pulled him out of teaching duties for some time, specifically for a mission-" Sakura swore. Of course it was ANBU. It was always ANBU.

"We have to start on his insides right now, he's going to die otherwise," her entire body was quaking with fear.

He was gazing listlessly into the sky, gasping desperately for breath like a fish out of water, yet looking as composed as could be at the same time. There wasn't an inch of unmarred skin on him, and he was bleeding from behind his hitae-ate heavily. Trying desperately to dam her own hysteria, she flew into action.

It had been 6 hours before he emitted any sort of noise, despite being conscious. At first it was a faint whisper, and she thought she was hearing voices in her frenzied state until she realized Kakashi's mouth was moving.

"I lied," his voice was weak and sounded like he'd swallowed a bucket of rocks and glass; somebody had obviously tried to strangle him at some point in the battle. By the pained expression on his face, they had almost succeeded, yet he somehow managed to crinkle his eye. Sakura looked at him, a moment of confusion flickering across her worry-worn features. He clarified for her, wincing with each raspy syllable, "I lied about not trusting you."

The tears she'd been fighting back all afternoon broke through the wall she'd been keeping up. "_Why?_" She choked out, body quavering with her uneven breaths.

"To make it easier when you left."

"You _idiot_," she sobbed, lifting an arm and rubbing at her eyes furiously. If he wasn't already dying, she would have killed him.

His breathing had evened slightly, but none of his outside wounds had been tended to. Sakura was pouring all her effort into his internal organs, but those were always harder than outside wounds. Somehow, though, he'd managed to lift an arm, pull down his mask, bring it to the back of her head, and pull her down for a kiss. Even when he was pale as death and his skin was colder than ice, his lips were still warm against hers.

"Third times the charm," he managed a feeble smile before his eyes slid shut.

"_No no no- you can't- don't you dare-_" She felt the last of her chakra draining out of her and into him, and she collapsed beside him, the world fading to back.

* * *

a/n: Two more years in one chapter. And also... the next chapter is the last chapter. Wow. Did you know this will be the first chapter fic I've ever finished? LOLOLOLOL i'mterribleiknowpleasedon'thurtme

I know that this chapter is significantly shorter. I even thought about putting the last chapter into this one, but then I decided not to. I've actually been simultaneously typing the next chapter, because I keep having to refer to things I need to address in order to tie up loose ends.


	7. Chapter 7

_Chapter 7_

She blinked, hissing at the bright light streaming through her hospital window. A few more blinks, and she realized she _wasn't _in the hospital and there _wasn't _any window. She was outside. In somebody's arms. _I swear I've been in this situation before_, she thought hazily.

"Sakura?"

At the sound of _that _familiar voice, Sakura bolted upright, accidentally knocking foreheads with whoever was carrying her. Groaning, she pressed a hand to her probably-going-to-bruise-noggin and squinted. She saw only a blur of silver through her narrowed eyes, but as her eyes widened, the outline became clearer and clearer.

Hardly daring to believe it, Sakura clasped her hands to the face in front of hers, tears springing to her eyes. "Kakashi?"

"That's me."

All her breath left her in a gust. "You're alive," her voice was quiet as the wind.

"I am."

"You're ok."

"Mhm."

"You didn't die."

"Nope."

Her hands smoothed over his mask before she pulled up his forehead protector, and her jade orbs searched his face. There was something off about it. "How long were you in the hospital? Why am _I_ not in the hospital?"

She watched as his eyebrows furrowed, noting that his worry lines were significantly deeper than before she'd knocked herself out healing him. And his eyes seemed to reflect more battle experience, too. That was odd. Unless Kakashi had fought more battles while he had been healing and she had been sleeping (which couldn't have been that long... right?), there was no way-

"You vanished from the hospital 6 years ago, Sakura."

* * *

_Sakura, 23; Kakashi, 37_

Despite her objections, Kakashi had left her in the hospital ("Think of it as recompense for all the times _you _left _me _in the hospital," he chided, eye creasing. Sakura was less than amused) under the supervision of what seemed to be a new nurse. Fortunately, it was only a few hours before the pinkette was called to go to the Hokage's office.

When she walked in, the busty blonde was shuffling and sorting through documents. The click of the door alerted the Hokage to her presence, and looking up, the Sannin asked immediately, "has Kakashi updated you, Sakura-chan?"

"He hasn't told me anything."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"About... anything?" Sakura raised a pink eyebrow. "Alright. If that's the case, sit down," the Sannin ended her demand with a wave of her hand and a deep sigh, looking thoroughly put-out.

Sakura didn't quite hear her teacher's next words, but the mumbles sounded suspiciously like "_bastard"_ and "_leaving it all to me_."

Tsunade spun suddenly towards her student, and Sakura was taken aback. "Alright. Where do I begin? I'll start easy- your attacker is dead. We killed him."

"Easy?" The girl deadpanned. Her teacher shrugged.

Sighing, Sakura continued. "But he _can't _die," she stated, absolutely sure she was right. "As long as he keeps traveling into the future from the past, he'll never die. Even after his present-day body dies, his body before he died can travel."

"Oh, he's dead Sakura, don't worry. It took five years, but it was done." Tsunade murmured, looking cryptically out the window. "ANBU was very thorough with it all. Made sure of it."

She had nothing to say. Her mind seemed to refuse to wrap around what her shishou was telling her. Coming to terms with this grain of "truth" would prove to be a chore.

"Do you-" the busty blonde hesitated, peering at her student questioningly. "Do you remember what it was that returned you to present day?"

Sakura shrugged. "If the memory actually exists in my mind, I have no idea what it is. Forgetting that jutsu-breaker is the programmed sacrifice for the jutsu to work."

"Hm," the Hokage pursed her lips. "But with Takahashi dead, you _should_ remember."

"Oh?"

Tsunade nodded, leaning onto her desk and resting her chin on her folded hands. "Well, if it comes back to you, don't forget to report back to me."

"Yes, shishou."

"Alright, you're dismissed." When the pinkette left and was not within hearing distance, Tsunade shook her head and sighed. "Poor bastard, that Hatake."

* * *

Today marked her second week back. She was walking back home with a bag of groceries in her hand, grateful that she hadn't been evicted. She would have to thank her shishou for that.

"Yo."

It took Sakura a moment to realize she was being spoken to, but when she did, she did a double-take. It was Kakashi.

All of a sudden, she felt incredibly anxious for two reasons: because she didn't know how to act around _this _Kakashi anymore, and second, she'd never really resolved the entire spat they'd had. Kakashi _had _told her he'd lied about not trusting her, but the entire event had never drawn to a conclusion before she had blacked out. Yet it still felt like there was some sort of hole in her memory. Shaking the unnerving sensation off, she waved to her team leader. "What's up?"

"I saw you two times before, but you seemed to disappear every time I got within speaking distance. Third times the charm, hm?" His eye crinkled. Something in the back of Sakura's mind flickered.

"Oh, you were looking for me?" Her eyebrows cinched. Something in Kakashi's statement sounded so familiar, but she couldn't quite place her finger on it. Hm.

He stared at her for a beat, his lone eye expressing absolutely nothing. "Looking for, stumbling upon... all pretty much the same thing once you get to be my age." Another pleasant crease of the eye.

Sakura gave a bark of laughter, rolling her eyes. "Don't act like 37 is old, especially for a guy, and especially for _you_, Kakash-" her words stumbled to a stop as she realized she was talking to her team leader and not her companion, "-sensei."

The heat and intensity to his gaze was bewildering- she felt like an egg frying on a pan. _Oh no, was I too informal? Oh great, he's gonna whip me at our next spar. What do I do?! Should I clarify? Oh my gosh, somebody please- _"37 is definitely a lot older than 18, Sakura... chan."

"I am so sorry, I shouldn't have- do you prefer _taichou_? I can totally call you taich- wha?" It took a minute for his declaration, said with forced levity, to register. His tentatively added-on suffix didn't help, either. She could feel a fire starting in her cheeks.

_What is worse than your 37-year-old, former teacher, __current captain, _bad ass extraordinaire, incredibly hot- no, stop, Sakura, stop, stop- off-handedly mentioning your freakishly weird relationship with him YOU WERE FOUR YEARS OLDER THAN HIM! FOUR YEARS, YOU COUGAR! YOU WERE HIS DOCTOR! YOU KNEW HIM WHEN HE WAS 13!

She swore she was melting.

"But I'll just be grateful I haven't hit 40 yet," he'd taken up his joking tone again; the note of disappointment in his eyes was fleeting, but Sakura was well-tuned to his emotions. The short burst of hurt emotion was enough to leave her winded and without words. She felt even worse when he smiled anyways. "I've actually been trying to find you so I could give you this."

Sakura suddenly noticed the shoebox he'd been carrying under his beloved novel. The corners were smashed in, and the paper glued to the cardboard was curling up from what was probably many years of humidity. She remembered that box- she'd had to buy a new pair of sandals during her stay when her old pair had worn out; they were the only pair of shoes she had bought there. Her hands reached out on their own accord, and she took the box wordlessly.

"See you later then." With a two-fingered salute, he vanished in a breeze of leaves.

The walk home was a long one, where she contemplated the exact meaning of the pain in Kakashi's eyes. Every kind of nervousness worked its way through her body, and by the time she reached her door, she was sweating in the cool night air, but not from physical exertion.

After placing all her produce in their respective areas, Sakura sat onto her couch, folding her legs underneath her. She had to wiggle the lid to get it to slide off, but she was rewarded with a familiar stack of photos that required her to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat. Picking the pile up, she blinked rapidly, hoping the furious movement would keep the tears at bay. The photos were yellowing from age, looking rather vintage. There was a sticky-note attached to the first picture, chicken-scratch scrawled across its bright pink hue. _Still the same person_, it read.

Sliding her thumb under the note and folding it up, Sakura exhaled quietly. Kakashi, in all his 16-year-old glory, was glaring into the camera as his hand was lifting to cover the lens. He was rolling his eyes but grinning in the next photo, and the third one was a blurry one of her caught off-guard by the flash. She was a little more than halfway through the pictures when a drop of water dripped onto the image, rolling off the sleek surface. Surprised, Sakura glanced out the window. It was certainly raining, but she was _inside_, and as far as she knew, there were no leaks in her roof, unless...

Was she...

_crying?_

"Shit."

* * *

He couldn't sleep. The sheer panic in her eyes when he'd brought up his age was just- it was comical, sure, but mostly it was painful. Oh, he'd figured this would happen. He wasn't stupid. But knowing never stopped the hurting. The entire scene replayed pitifully in his head, and he couldn't help but to wonder when he'd fallen so far from sanity.

_Oh yeah. 18 years ago_.

If he was going to be honest with himself, trying to "rekindle the flame" with Sakura was rather sordid of him. Sure, it was only a week ago for _her_, but for _him_...

A weak knock at the door ended his pity-party, and he drew himself off his worn sofa to open the door, wondering who would visit _him _at _this _time of night. It was 2 in the morning, for crying out loud.

_Sakura, apparently_, Kakashi mused when his door opened to reveal a familiar, dripping, shivering ex-student of his.

"I- I really missed you."

* * *

She could've slapped herself in the face if her hands weren't ready to freeze off. '_I really missed you'? Really, Sakura? Is that the best you can do? This could not be more embarrassing. _The pinkette was just about ready to high-tail it out of there, but Kakashi grabbed her wrist as she was turning, and the warm feeling of his hand jarred her out of her self-consciousness. He pulled her to his chest, and ease melted through her weary bones.

* * *

"Me too," he murmured through her hair, inhaling deeply. The scent of linen and peaches made him close his eyes and just _revel _in returned familiarity. Her skin under his palms warmed up, and soon her fingers were clinging to his warm sweater.

She seemed to melt further into his embrace before eventually pulling herself up onto her toes and pressing her nose into the crook of his neck,then breathing out a sigh of relief and turning her head up to gaze at him with bright eyes. "How?"

Kakashi pried himself out of her tight grasp, holding onto her shoulders and staring her up and down for a minute or two. She started to squirm under his intense look-over. "I'll tell you later. For now, you should clean yourself up."

20 minutes later, after a hot shower and a comfortable change of clothes, Sakura stepped into his living room, her lithe, pale figure overwhelmed not only by the size of his clothing but also the drab colours. She sat tentatively onto the couch beside him, twisting her body so she could face him. Slight surprise welled through her body when she saw his unmasked face, but the nonchalant way in which Kakashi held out a steaming mug of tea reminded Sakura that she'd already seen _that _handsome picture many times, and in person, too. So she took the offering gratefully between her sleeved hands.

Silence filled the room, each of them searching for questions and explanations.

"How did you get by all these years-"

"As long as you were alive and well, I was fine-"

Their simultaneous outbursts clashed, and instead of embarrassment, they both laughed. Sakura smiled at him over her tea before piping up, "that's it? No pining? No longing?" Looking away to place the cup onto Kakashi's wooden coffee table as gently as she could, the medic exhaled dramatically, eyes widening slightly. "Nice to know how you feel about me."

He was still smiling when he answered, "I just figured everything would come about, and then it'd be ok."

Just the sight of his full-face-smile made her stomach flip. It had only been a week or two for her, but the giddy sensation was undeniable. "You are a patient, patient man, Hatake Kakashi."

Cheekily, he countered, "I expect to be rewarded for it."

As funny as his response was, Sakura huffed, glaring at him through thick eyelashes. "That _can't _ be everything. You waited _18 years _for me to come back to you, and for half of those years, you had me _right under your nose!_"

Her disgruntled air immediately turned to discomfort as she fidgeted under his speculative stare, waiting for him to finally speak up.

"When you were a genin, you were only interested in one thing, and it wasn't your old sensei," his eyes crinkled and the medic cringed. "To be honest, it was funny to watch. Made for a lot of good stories... then again, nothing you hadn't already told me." His smirk made her roll her eyes. "I was... getting to know you on another level. I can't explain what I was thinking those years, but I imagine it'd be a lot like what you were thinking as you experienced my growth." He paused. "What _were _you thinking?"

"Half the time I wanted to punch you, and the other half of the time... you surprised me."

He '_hm_'ed, nodding. "I was the same- without the violent tendencies. I think the hardest part was watching you grow into the person I knew you to be."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, wondering if he was being completely honest. "Was it not weird for you? Being in love with a 13 year old?"

"Was it weird for _you_?"

She shrunk back. "I wasn't in _love _with you when you were _13_!"

Kakashi raised his eyebrows at her, as if to say _well-why-don't-you-draw-your-own-conclusions-about -me-then?_

"Oh. I see." Still, her eyebrows furrowed. "But how? It was still me..." To be honest, thinking about the situation kind of freaked her out. Did Kakashi harbor intense feelings for her when she was _13_? She shuddered at the thought. That was kind of gross. And now she didn't really feel very good about this entire relationship she had with Kakashi... whatever it was.

"Was it, Sakura? Like I said, you were obsessed with only one thing. And your obsession really took a toll on your entire personality, skill, and even emotions. You weren't the girl I knew at all. Honestly, you were a handful to deal with. I had no idea how I was going to end up falling in love with someone like that."

The pinkette flushed from head to toe, turning a colour that had her living up to her namesake. But he was right. He was always right.

"But, like I said. It was hard watching you grow into who I knew you to be. At 16 I was more afraid of it than anything, but by the time you were 17, I'd come to terms with it. Unfortunately, I happened to lose you just as I was getting used to that returning emotion."

"Love?"

He shrugged. "I hate to be cliche, but pretty much." His comment made her toes curl, and she couldn't stop the giddy grin from rising on her face.

"You love me," Sakura cooed. "You _love _me!" An enthusiastic peel of laughter bubbled out of her.

Kakashi eyed her through hooded grey orbs without amusement, looking completely unaffected. "I love _you_," he monotoned, looking dramatically grim. "I should've stopped talking to you while I could have. You'll be the death of me."

"_Kakashi!_" Sakura chirped. "Don't be such a killjoy!"

* * *

They hadn't stopped talking for 6 more hours. It was 8 in the morning. Neither was tired (really, it was just like old times). In fact, she'd curled into his side, tea finished long before as she waved her arms (or sleeves, for that matter) about, animatedly detailing the gruesome procedure of sticking an organ back into a still-living body.

"-and blood, holy crap, _blood everywhere!_ You can't even begin to imagine. I _swear-_" Sakura punctured her solemnity with a rough jab in the air. "-everybody who isn't a medic is _seriously _missing out, and- why are you looking at me like that?"

He was looking at her, all right. Staring at her, more like it, with a small, sideways smile and a rather dark look in his eyes. "Hm?"

Sakura lifted herself away from his warm body, alarmed. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Shaking the long, dark wool down her arm, she pressed a palm to his forehead. "Are you ok? You don't have a fever..." Just as Sakura leaned away to bring her hand off, Kakashi grabbed it and pulled her forward. The kunoichi lurched into him, and he pressed his mouth to hers.

The heat started in her lips and shot through her, spreading pleasant shivers down her spine. It didn't take long for her to press back just as eagerly, unknowingly crawling into his lap, brushing her fingers faintly over his cheekbones and jawline. His hands were just as enthusiastic, crawling up and down her sides, thumbs hitching up her sweater to press against warm, satin skin.

It felt like a lifetime before they broke apart. Sakura's usual lively, verdant eyes were glassy and the colour of the sea before a storm, and his eyes- his eyes _were _the storm.

She smiled, speaking quietly. "Third times the charm, huh?" Her joke trailed off, smile dropping slowly at his completely somber expression.

His voice, though still clearly affected by what had just happened, was low and reserved. "Actually, that's my fourth try and our _second _kiss."

Sakura jerked away from him, blinking rapidly. "What? We never kissed, what do you mean-" Her mouth snapped shut when a swift rush of colours filled her mind. A sense of terrifying panic swept through her, then something inside her curled as she felt a warmth on her lips, followed immediately by a pathetic desperation.

The memory ended, and when she blinked, she realized that hot tears were rolling down her face. "_Oh_." She said shortly, softly, as the face of the current-day Kakashi swam back into view.

"Oh," Kakashi echoed, waiting patiently for her to gather her wits.

"Well," she began shakily, swallowing. Kakashi was keeping her at a respectable distance, perhaps wary that she would reject him now that she knew what had _actually _happened. She smiled weakly, faintly, before peering at him shyly through her lashes. "We have a lot of lost time to catch up on, don't we."

Kakashi blinked in wonder a few times before a genuine grin formed slowly as well. "Time traveling has got to be the best mistake you've ever made."

They both laughed before leaning in for another kiss, fingers twining together like their timelines.

* * *

a/n: I actually got up from my seat and paced as I was writing this chapter. I was like, "ooh my gooossshh what do I dooooooooo this is so terrriiibbllleee" LOL. These last two chapters actually ended up taking completely different turns than what I'd originally outlined. My imagination and brain literally died writing this chapter, and I'm really sorry that you guys had to feel the repercussions of it through a long weight. Not to mention I've been getting situated into COLLEGE WAHOOOOOOO but honestly I can't really blame that because I got settled into college prreeettyyyy quickly...

So yeah. I know there are a ton of POV changes and breaks throughout the chapter. I just couldn't write a one-sided POV. I mean, after doing that the entire story, it kind of seemed right to make the last chapter in _both _their POVs. Sorry if it's confusing or overwhelming or you don't like it, but... I LIKE IT. HEHEHEE. AI LYK IT VERI MUCH also, I only read through the ending once, so please excuse me for any grammatical errors.

Furthermore, I'm going to start another fic. It's probably going to be incredibly short, but I think the plots rather original (... maybe not. I'd like to think it is...). It'll be rated M, but I don't think it'll be too hot because I basically can't write that kind of stuff HAHAHAHAHAHA (like, I am mentally not prepared for it. Not like I am handicapped. It just also doesn't sit well with my conscience LOL). I was determined to finish this fic first because I don't feel right starting another fic while leaving this one hanging. Anyways, it's going to be about what happened with Sakura's Inner. And eerrrr, yeah. I'm pretty certain that it'll be titled "Taming Her Temper." I've been certain about that for a while.


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